Power Rangers Extreme Challenge
by stargazer 1017
Summary: [MMPR-PRWF] Power Rangers are matched up to achieve pride--and to win a large amount of money. RR/RW challenge except with a PR twist. *Episode 7 finally up*
1. The Director's Call

Disclaimers: I own nothing about Power Rangers, yep, yep, and more yep.  
  
Author's note: I think I've been watching too much Real World/Road Rules: Battle of the Seasons, because this idea came to mind--why not make one for Power Rangers? Where it has nothing to do with morphing or using their powers, and where their true personalities come out? I thought it would be an interesting idea, so I'm writing this. I still have a lot to figure out and if you have any ideas on what "missions" you'd like the rangers to go through, let me know at **stargazer_1017@lycos.com **Some notes:  
-Not all rangers will be used. There will be two groups, and each group has pairs of rangers: one male, one female. Since there are more males than females in the PR world, all females will be used, but not all males. There will be two hosts, which of course will be two of the males not chosen to participate in the challenge.  
-It'll be a mixed partnership. For example (only an example. I'm not sure if I'll use this partnership or not), Maya might get paired up with Rocky.   
-Everyone in this world already knows who all the Power Rangers are. In the story, this'll be a FACT.   
-Last fact of established couples will be recognized. Like, Angel and Joel will still be married, Ashley and Andros will still be going together, etc. But will any of them be **_broken up_**? *grins evilly* It's all a part of how this goes. Couples might be broken, but I guarentee couples will be made!  
-This first chapter will deal with how the show came about, the choosing of the groups, hosts, etc, but I won't let you know who the pairs are yet.  
That's all for my notes. I'll be revising, so the next time you read the story, it might be different. . .but I'll try to really go over my episodes before I post them online, so I don't confuse anyone. As always, please r/r. Have a happy reading!

Power Rangers Extreme Challenge  
Part 1: The Director's Call  
By: stargazer_1017

Christian McGee sat at his desk, twirling his seat around. Suddenly, a red-haired man with glasses burst into his room. "Mr. McGee, the CEO of Real Studios called again. He said if he's paying you this much to sit around and come up with lame tv shows, he might as fire you and that he wouldn't rehire you even to be the janitor," the man said.

Christian rolled his eyes. His incompetent assistant was so insensitive. He delivered the news proudly to his boss. He probably doesn't even realize the message was an insult, Christian thought bitterly. He narrowed his eyes at his assistant, who was holding a newspaper in his hand. "Trevor, you repeat that to anyone, you're as good as dead, you got it?" he yelled at the assistant.

Trevor was shaken up by the tone of his boss' voice and dropped the paper. "Now you good-for-nothing-assistant, who I am _definitely _over-paying, you better come up with some ideas for a tv show!" Christian yelled, getting up and stomping towards the younger man. "Because if you can't come up with anything, I'll fire you so quick, you'll be running out of here with your pants wet!" Trevor nodded and started cautiously backing away. Christian noticed the paper on the floor and picked it up huffily. "And get this newspaper out--" he stopped when he saw the headlines. 

_"Turtle Cove suffers another attack from an Org. Damages reported at almost $12,000."_

Christian read other headlines under it.

_"Angel Grove slowly recontstructing businesses hurt by monster attacks almost a decade ago."  
"Silver Hills downtown is receiving funds by millionaire Mr. Collins, of Collins Bio Lab Technologies, for reconstruction."  
"Mariner Bay former Ranger, Joel Rawlings, wins award from MBPD."_

"That's it!" Christian yelled suddenly. Trevor was now trembling like a leaf. Christian turned to his assistant with a grin on his face. "Trevor, have I told you what a wonderful assistant you are?" he said, approaching him. Trevor closed his eyes as Christian raised a hand. He waited for the slap across the face, but instead, got an arm around his shoulders. "This is the show! Trevor, I want you to get all the names and contacting addresses of all the Power Rangers." He turned around and faced his large ceiling-to-floor windows. "I have an idea."

__

"A Power Ranger show?"

"Yes, Mr. Newton," Christian said, over the phone. He pitched the idea of the show to his boss, the CEO who just threatened him about his job just a couple of minutes ago.

"And what's the point of this show?"

"Get the Rangers to complete dangerous, and sometimes stupid missions. We get to see their personality traits, they also get to vote each other off, and all this leads to the grand prize of--$1,000,000" Christian forced excitement into his voice.

"Get real, McGee. Our studios are rich, but not that rich."

"Fine. How about $50,000?"

Mr. Newton was silent for a moment. Then he sighed. "I'll give you a go on this one, McGee. Don't screw it up."

*Later that day*

"Sir, I've got all of their contact addresses, except for six of them."

"Six?"

"Yes. Billy Cranston has no forwarding address that we know of."

"No address?" Christian asked. "He lives on Earth, doesn't he?" he demanded.

". . .I don't know. . ."

Christian rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine. The other five?"

"They were alien rangers from another planet and we have no way of reaching them."

Again, the director narrowed his eyes. "Okay. . ." he waved his hand dismissedly. "What about the other. . .whatever number of them there are?"

"It'll take some time to contact some of them. Would you like us to start right away?"

And I pay him for this. . ."No, Trevor, I would like the list so I can just stare at it." When Trevor stared at him, Christian beat his hand on his desk. "Go!"

"Brrriiiinnnnngg!"

"Coming!" Wes Collins rushed from the kitchen to his living room, throwing the cooking mitts from his hands. Wes had actually kept his apartment clean for as long as he'd had it--five months. Ever since his partnership with Eric and the Silver Guardians, he had been offered his room back at his father's mansion, but refused. With his own apartment, he'd have his own separate, little haven. "Hello?"

"Is this Wesley Collins?"

"Yes, and who's this?" Wes asked the timid voice on the other line.

"I--I'm Trevor Sheppard. I was wondering if. . .you wanted to participate in something."

"Participate?" Wes asked. What the heck was this guy talking about?

Suddenly, Wes heard a loud bang on the other line. Wes grimaced at the noise and then heard bits and pieces of the conversation. "Incompetant. . .over-paid. . ." then someone's voice came on the line and spoke clear. "Mr. Collins, I'm--"

"Wes."

"I'm sorry? Oh yes, uh, Wes, my name is Christian McGee. I'm a producer for Real Studios."

"Wow really? That's awesome!" Wes started getting excited at the thought a producer wanted to speak to him.

"Yes--well you see, I'm going to be producing a new show for the studios. A reality series featuring the Power Rangers."

"A reality series? How is that going to work?" Wes asked.

"Well, not exactly a reality series, but I'm going to do a show where we'll gather all of the Power Rangers, and then propose a challenge. Sort of like, Survivor and the Weakest Link put together."

Wes thought about this for a moment. All of the Power Rangers. . ."Wait a minute,_ all_ of the Power Rangers?" 

"Yes, all."

Then I'll see Jen again, Wes thought happily. He hadn't seen his love for a long time and missed her more everyday. "But we'll need your help," Christian's voice said over the phone.

"Huh?" Wes asked. "What do you need my help for?"

"Your teammates? I understand they're from the future, and well, I don't know of any way I can reach them," Christian explained. 

"Oh." Honestly, Wes didn't know either. He hadn't talked to any of his teammates since they left to return to the future. His morpher could work--maybe. He hadn't tried. He didn't understand why he didn't want to, and so he never tried.

"Mister--I mean, Wes? Are you there?"

I guess the only way I'll know is if I try, Wes thought silently. "I'll find a way to reach them. Don't worry Mr. McGee," Wes said, determined. He had to reach his friends--and he would find a way.

"Please contact me when you do, Wes. And I assume you're going on the show?" 

Wes nodded ecstatically. "You bet I will."  
  
  
**********************************  
  
"I made the list like you said, Mr. McGee," Trevor said, putting the paper on his boss' desk. "How did contacting everyone go?" 

Christian took the paper Trevor put on his desk and looked at the list. "I got everyone," he replied.

"Even those from the future?"

Christian looked up from the paper. "I said I got everyone, Trevor. What in that sentence didn't you understand?" Trevor looked down and nodded. Christian rolled his eyes and quickly scanned the document. Then he frowned. "Wait--wait a minute." Trevor looked up slightly. Christian looked at him. "Not all the rangers' names are here!" he said.

"Well, I couldn't pair everyone up. I mean, there are more guys than girls and to get a guy/girl pairing, there's some guys left over. . ."

Christian groaned frustratedly. He had forgotten about that. He thought for a moment about what to do. "We could use two of them as hosts for the show," he said thoughtfully. "But what about the others?"

"Maybe we could get some girls on the outside to match up with the guys?" Trevor suggested.

Christian shook his head. That idea had come to mind, but. . ."Nah, it's too impersonal. Any other female figures in these people's lives?"

Trevor thought for a moment. Danny, the Black Wild Force Ranger, had a crush on his former co-worker. . .Vypra? Nah, she was gone. . .wait a minute. . ."Joel has his wife, Angela Fairweather. And how about Danny's crush? And I was also thinking about Nadira."

"Nadira?"

"Yeah. She's Ransik's daughter. She no longer agrees with hurting humans and so she's . . .on the good side now, I guess you can say," Trevor said.

A smile formed on Christian's face. "I guess you got some smarts in you after all, kid," he said. Trevor smiled slowly. "Yes, sir."

"Okay, that takes out three. . .but what about the others?" Christian thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. "Oh well, can't win them all, can't we?" He looked back down at the list. "But this makes the list uneven. . ." he frowned and then shrugged again. "I'll figure it out later." He looked up at Trevor. "I'll start holding auditions for the two hosts then."

******************

Kai squinted as he looked up at the building. Earth changed everytime he came back for a visit. He sighed as he walked in. "Can I help you, sir?" the woman behind the receptionist desk asked when he approached. 

"Mr. McGee asked to see me?"

The woman nodded, running her hand down the paper. "Yes, and you are. . Kai Chen?" When Kai nodded, the woman pointed to the elevator. "Take the elevator to the 22nd floor, and go down the hall on your right, it'll be the third door on the left."

22nd floor, hall on right, third door on left. "Got it," Kai replied and went off. When he reached the 22nd floor, he followed the directions given to him, and knocked on the door. The door opened to reveal the smiling face of T.J.

Kai grinned at his friend. "T.J., you're here too?" he asked, giving his friend a hug.

T.J. nodded. "Yeah, I didn't get the chance to be on the challenge, so they told me to come in and see if they could find some way to put me in the challenge. How about you?"

Kai nodded. "Me too. I hope I get it. As long as I get to be _some _part of it, you know?"

T.J. nodded again and walked off. "I'll see you later then, Kai."

"Later," Kai replied and turned to knock on the door again when a tall, thin man stood in front of him. He jumped. "Whoa," he said, calming himself down.

"Sorry, Mr. Chen," the frail kid replied. "Come in," he ushered Kai in.

"Welcome back to Earth, Mr. Chen," a well-built man sat at the desk, smiling slightly at him.

"Are you Mr. McGee?" Kai asked, walking forward to the desk.

Christian nodded. "Yes. Please, have a seat," he said, gesturing towards the leather seat in front of his desk. When Kai complied, Christian started, "As you know, the Power Rangers Extreme Challenge will begin in about a couple of weeks in locations around the Pacific Ocean. You'll see all your former teammates, and also new and old rangers you've probably heard of but never met," Christian started. "Unfortunately, we were unable to place you with a partner, but we are offering you the chance to be a part of the experience by being a host. What do you say to that?"

A host? Kai had never done anything like that before. "Well, I would like to be a part of the challenge somehow," Kai replied. "I don't really have experience doing. . .hosting stuff."

"No problem. Have you talked in front of people before? Or addressed an audience?"

Kai thought back to the times he had to give briefings to new recruits on Terra Venture. "Yes, I have."

"Excellent! If you're interested, we'll keep you in mind when selecting our hosts."

"Hosts?"

"Yes. If you're chosen, you'll have another host to keep you company." He paused briefly. "If you have no other questions, you're free to go." 

Kai had no other questions. He got up, shook hands with Christian and then left. When Kai closed the door, Trevor turned to his boss. "Do you know who to chose now?" he asked.

Christian turned his chair around to gaze outside his window. "Yes, I've decided who the two hosts will be. Now, all we have to do is wait until the challenge starts."  
  
  
  
Author's Note: You like so far? Hope that wasn't too confusing. . .still trying to work with a plot here. The first episode will come up soon, and I'll let you know then when I plan to update the stories. R/R please!


	2. Episode 1: A Ranger Reunion

Disclaimer: I have the disclaimer in the first part of the story.  
  
Author's Notes: Finally, we get to the first episode. Remember, I'm still struggling with some plots. . .but I have some ideas down and ready to go. I'll try to make this as accurate to each of the seasons as possible.  
I'll follow how they do it on RW/RR, where they have narratives during the ep. Well, not exactly narratives, but if you've seen the show, it's the part where they basically talk to the camera, or the producers behind the camera. The narratives will be indicated by [-----] If you don't catch it now, you'll catch it when it's written.  
I apologize ahead of time for the lame chapter. Hopefully by the time we get to the missions, it'll be much better. I'm not sure if I should continue to write the story this way, or write it in playwright.  
As always, please R/R. I love getting reviews, and please try to leave your e-mail so I can thank you. Or you can just e-mail me: **stargazer_1017@lycos.com** I'm always open to suggestions for missions =) More notes at the end of the chapter.

Power Rangers Extreme Challenge  
Episode 1: A Ranger Reunion  
By: stargazer_1017

Kim walked out of the terminal from her plane in Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa. She smiled and took a deep breath. She heard loud chatter not too far from her and looked towards the noise. There was a Chinese-looking girl with long black hair pulled up in a loose ponytail, with an African-American boy and a hispanic boy.

The girl looked towards Kim and her eyes widened. She ushered the two boys she was with and walked towards Kim. "Hey! I recognize you. .. You're, Kim, right?"

Kim smiled. "Yeah, that's me. I'm sorry, I don't know you're name though. . ."

"I'm Cassie," the young woman introduced herself. 

"Oh right! A pink ranger like me."

Cassie smiled. "Yep. This is T.J.," she gestured to her right, where T.J. stood, "And Carlos," who was to her left.

Kim smiled and waved. "Nice to meet you guys,"

[Kim: "Got off the plane and already I'm meeting rangers. I felt bad, not recognizing Cassie. I mean, I've heard of the space rangers, but I, you know, didn't really keep tabs on their names."]

"So are you guys in the competition too?" Kim asked.

Cassie nodded. "Not all of us are here though."

"What do you mean?"

"Zhane said he didn't want to participate in the challenge."

[Cassie: "T.J., Carlos, and I are the only Space rangers on earth. Karone left to go to Terra Venture and never came back, Ashley and Andros have been going back and forth between KO-35 and Earth, and Zhane left for KO-35 not too long after Karone left."]

******************

"Man, we've been staying so long in Switzerland, I've forgotten what the sun felt like," Zack said, closing his eyes in the warmth.

[Zack: "My name is Zack. Trini, Jason, and I've just come back from Swizterland where we've stayed for college after attending a peace conference there.]

"Hey look, it's Rocky and Adam," Jason said, pointing towards the hispanic man and his friend, who was Japanese looking. He walked towards his friends and gave them both hugs. "Guys, you know Trini and Zack," he said, gesturing to his friends. Rocky nodded and smiled at them. "Man, is this challenge going to be a breeze or what?" he asked.

"What makes you say that?" Trini inquired as the group walked towards the baggage claim to get their luggage. Rocky shrugged. "With us being Power Rangers and all. . ."

"You think it'll go easy?" Adam finished, rolling his eyes. "Can't be too overconfident now, Rocky," he told his friend, putting a hand on his shoulder. 

~Somewhere else in the airport. . .~

[Kat: "My name is Katherine, but my friends call me Kat."]

"Do you think everyone made it?" Kat asked her boyfriend, Tommy. They were both at a luggage claim, trying to retrieve all their suitcases. Tommy shrugged, looking around. "I'm sure everyone came down. It'd be great to finally meet all the teams of rangers."

[Kat: "I hope that I get paired up with Tommy. We agreed to participating in the competition, but were told we wouldn't know what pairings would be in which team."]

~A ride to the hotel room~

Kendrix looked outside her window. "Wow, I've never been to the Pacific before," she breathed. She turned to her friends, the Galaxy Rangers, and smiled. "Are you guys nervous about the competition?

Leo smiled confidently. "Nah. It's only for money, right? No pressure!"

"You just wanted to be on tv?" Asked Maya, who was sitting in the front seat asked.

"I know I do," Damon replied. He was sitting in the last seat in the van bringing them to the resort. 

"I wonder if everyone else's gonna be here," Karone remarked. She was sitting next to Damon, a thoughtful look on her face. She looked out the window.

[Karone: "I hadn't seen my brother, Andros, or any of the Space Rangers since I left to retrieve the Pink Quasar Saber from Trakeena. I would love to see them again. (She laughs) My gosh, this thing is kinda weird. I've never done this kind of. . .narrating before. It's like talking to a mirror!"]

**************************

"Welcome all to Pago Pago Island in America Samoa. As you all know, you're all Power Rangers or have relations to Rangers and have been chosen to participate in a voyeur series we call Power Ranger Extreme Challenge," Christian McGee spoke from a microphone later that night. All Rangers were outside, seated at tables in front of a stage that Christian was speaking from.

"Now, we warned all of you that you wouldn't know who your partners are until you arrive, and now we'll reveal them to you," Christian contined. "If the hosts will please rise and join us onstage."

Kai and T.J. got up and walked towards the stage.

[Cassie: "I didn't know T.J. was going to be a host. I was hoping he'd be my partner during competitions." She shrugged. "But the less people, the more chance to win, I guess."]

"This is Kai, the Blue Galaxy Ranger, and this is T.J., the Blue Space Ranger. They'll be doing the talking for the rest of the show." With that, Christian handed the microphone over to Kai and went offstage.

"Hey everyone," Kai greeted the group. He was met with a chorus of "Hey". "I know everyone's been waiting for the moment to find out who your partner is, but we still have to explain the rules of the game and so forth. Okay, everyone will go on tasks we call missions. Missions can range in danger and safety, so always be prepared. Also, you will have to hold onto your communicators, or morhping devices because that'll be how we'll contact you about when a mission's going to come up, but you can't use your morpher to morph. If you do that, you'll be disqualified from competition."

[Rocky: (Snaps his fingers) Shucks, before he said that, I thought I had a guarentee win for this competition."]

T.J. took the microphone. "With every mission completed, points will be given to each pairing. The three pairings with the highest points after every completed mission will decide who gets voted off the group. Now, you'll be divided into two groups. One group, the first one, has one set more than the second group, but that only means that before the final competition, two groups will get voted off at once," T.J. said, grinning evilly. 

"You're evil, man," Joel yelled at him onstage. He was holding his wife, Angela's, hand. Next to them, Andros and Ashley were holding hands also, smiling. Everyone gave a chuckle.

"Okay, and now for the assigned groupings," Kai said. He looked at his paper. "I'll read off Group 1 and T.J. will read off Group 2. Okay, the team for Group 1: Trini and Jason, Aisha and Carlos, Katie and Damon, Kendall and Danny, Angela and Joel, Maya and Zack, Jen and Carter, Dana and Leo, Lucas and Nadira, and Kim and Tommy."

[Kat: "Tommy got paired up with Kim?" She looks bewildered and slightly uncomfortable.]  
[Kim: "Uh-oh, I saw that look that Kat gave me when my name was called with Tommy. She's probably that I'm going to steal her boyfriend from her. But Kat knows me better than that--right?"]

"Second group," T.J. started, "Ashley and Andros, Cassie and Adam, Karone and Rocky, Taylor and Mike, Tanya and Trip, Kelsey and Chad, Kendrix and Wes, Alyssa and Cole, and Kat and Max."

[Ashley: "I'm so relieved to be paired with Andros. Not that I think he's going to cheat on me or anything, but I think we'd make a great team. I feel lucky--but I feel bad for Kat. I saw that look she was giving Kim."]

"Now Group 1 has the larger group," Kai commented. "It doesn't mean they have the advantage. Actually, it means that you'll have a lesser chance of winning the prize, which is $100,000." Everyone clapped and cheered, and a loud "Whoop!" from Joel was heard.

[Max: "$100,000? Man, with that money, I could buy everything I've ever wanted! Cars, a new house. . .wait, okay, I'll buy a mansion in Turtle Cove and just go down once in awhile, when I gotta get away from the Animarium."]  
[Joel and Angela are sitting together. Joel: "We can tour the world with that kind of money!" He turns to Angela. "Think about it. We can go anywhere you'd like!"   
Angela: She shrugs. "I don't care for the money. It's just great seeing everyone here, and nice to meet others too."  
Joel gives her a look of disbelief. "What do you mean it's not for the money?"]

~*Later that night, in the villas*~

Kat is in Tommy's room, watching him put away his clothes in the drawers. "So, what do you think of Kim being your partner?"

[Tommy: "Kat seems. . .kinda jealous at the fact that Kim's partnered with me. But I'm trying to tell her that it's all over between me and Kim. It's been over for a long time now."]

"Kat, are you. . .uncomfortable with me being Kim's partner?" Tommy stopped putting his clothes away and turned to his girlfriend. 

Kat looked down. "I'm just. . ." she trailed off and looked back at Tommy, who was smiling gently at her. She shook her head and smiled back. "I'm sorry. I'm acting silly, aren't I?"

Tommy sat down beside her and took her hands. "That's what I've been trying to tell you," he said. When Kat said nothing but looked satisfied, Tommy got back up and continued to put away his clothes. 

Suddenly, Zack stuck his head in the doorway, with Damon right beside him. "Yo man, it's dinner time. You guys ready?"

Tommy nodded. "We'll be there in a moment."

~*In Andros' room*~

"So where's Zhane?" Karone asked Ashley and Andros, who were putting away Andros' belongings.

Ashley bit her lip and turned to Andros. When Andros didn't turn around to answer his sister's question, Ashley replied quietly, "He. . .didn't want to come."

"Why not?"

[Karone: "I don't know why Zhane wasn't here. I really wanted to see him though. We had a fling back when I was Astronema, but before we had the chance to resolve anything, I went to retrieve the Pink Quasar Saber from Trakeena." She groans frustratedly. "The things you go through to be a ranger."]

Ashley shrugged helplessly. "He said he wanted to stay on KO-35 to make sure things were okay there," she said lamely.

[Ashley: "I know Karone knew that was a lame excuse. But I didn't know why Zhane wasn't here either. Zhane has a . . .way with things. Sometimes he's into doing things, sometimes he isn't. He probably didn't know what would go on between him and Karone and didn't want to face her."]

~*In the dining hall*~

Danny walked into the dining hall and looked around for a familiar face. He saw his fellow Wild Force rangers sitting at a table. Then Danny noticed who was sitting with them. "Hey Kendall," Danny greeted his long-time crush and partner as he approached the table.. Kendall barely gave him a look. "Hey," she replied. Danny seemed confused by this reaction and his expression changed from confusion to hurt when Kendall got up suddenly and walked away with a, "Excuse me."

Taylor frowned. "Hey, what's up with you and Kendall?" she asked. Danny shrugged. "I don't know."

[Kendall: "I thought Danny and I were pretty close. He's a sweet guy. But when I found out he was a ranger from someone else, that kinda. . .diminished what we had. I had confided a lot of things in him and he couldn't confide this in me."]

Kendall looked back and saw Danny taking a seat next to Alyssa. 

[Kendall: "I guess it kinda hurt."]

"All this for a money prize?" Cole asked everyone at the table. Max's eyes brightened. "Yeah! I can't wait to get my hands on that money," he said, rubbing his hands together.

"And what makes you think you're going to win?" a voice said from behind him. Everyone at the table turned to look at the person and saw that it was Mike. He was walking towards them with his brother Leo, and friend Kendrix. 

"And you think you are?" Max shot back. He turned to Taylor quickly. "No offense, Taylor."

[Taylor: "What I think about Mike? I don't know Mike at all. He seems like an okay guy, but only time can tell."]

Alyssa rolled her eyes and turned back to Cole. "You know, the money could be helpful for you." When Cole gave her a questioning look, she replied, "It would definitely help you find your parents faster."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because there are ways of tracking them down with money." Alyssa shrugged. "You can always get ads on the television, join search groups on the internet, hiring a detective, that kind of stuff."

"What about you? What would you use the money for?"

"Me? I don't know. . .I guess to pay for my school. That way, my father doesn't have so much of a burden on his hands with paying for my schooling," Alyssa replied thoughtfully.

[Max: "That's Alyssa. Always thinking about other people first. I hope she doesn't win."]

"But we're going to win it, right Taylor?" Mike said, grinning. Taylor raised her eyebrows at him. "We'll see," she replied nonchalantly.

[Mike: "For some reason, I had the feeling to be confident about winning. I don't really care about the money. But Taylor seems like a great partner. Maybe we'll end up winning."]

Kai got up onstage in the dining hall. "Everyone, take a seat please," he said. Mike, Leo, and Kendrix took the open seats on Taylor's table and when everyone was seated, Kai spoke up again. "It's been decided that we'll have our first mission tomorrow." As the group gave an applause, T.J. took over. "Everyone, be dressed in workout gear, because it'll be a jungle out there."

[Cole: "Jungle? Hmm, maybe I have a chance at this after all." He grins]

"What's the mission?" Leo asked.

"Leo, you know we can't tell you that," Kai groaned.

"Not even just a hint? Ouch!" Leo cried out when Kendrix pinched him on the arm. Everyone laughed. Kai rolled his eyes and said, "Enjoy your dinner guys."

~*Later in the night*~

Jen was overlooking the beach from the little patio her group's villa. 

[Jen: "I didn't think I'd ever come back to this time. I missed everything, and I missed Wes like crazy. To hear his voice a couple of weeks ago, calling us back to this time to participate in this challenge was actually comforting. And it gave me another reason to come back."]

"Hey."

Jen jumped slightly at the voice and spun around. She was met by Wes' grinning face. Slowly, a smile spread across her face too. "Hey yourself," she greeted him. Then things felt awkward. They hesitantly leaned forward and gave each other a hug.

[Jen: "A hug. . .after revealing that we loved each other and we hadn't seen each other for a long time, we gave each other a hug."]  
[Wes: "That was so stupid of me."]

"So. . .how have you been?" Jen asked, forcing a larger smile on her face.

"Good. . .good. . ." Wes replied, nodding his head slowly. "Great," Jen replied. Then there was silence. "You know--" both of them started at the same time. When they realized that, both gave a nervous laugh. "You go first," Wes said, holding up his hands.

"No you."

"No, you're the leader. You go first," Wes replied. Jen took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. I was just. . .wondering, about us."

[Wes: "Oh boy. We haven't even gotten through day one of the competition and already we're going into the 'We have to talk about us' speech."]

When Wes nodded, Jen pushed forward. "I was wondering. . .if, when all this is done, you'll come back to the future with me."

Wes' eyes widened at her suggestion. "What?"

"I've really missed you, Wes. And you'd love the future! It's got everything, and--"

"Jen, I don't think I can come with you to the future."

Jen frowned. "Why not?"

Wes shook his head. "It isn't my time. I mean, I really think this is where I belong. I've finally got things settled down.. Instead of me going to the future, why don't you stay here?"

"In the past?"

"Yeah! You've done it before. . .it wouldn't be so bad. Things are peaceful in Silver Hills again."

[Jen: "I've thought about staying behind, here in the past. But I didn't know if I could just leave the future forever. I want to stay with Wes. . .but could we be together here?"]

Jen looked at him. "I--don't know if I can leave the future to stay here, Wes." Wes' face fell. "Oh," he replied softly. 

Jen watched his expression and then forced a smile on her face. "Hey," she said, reaching for his hand, "we've got a couple more weeks to go. I mean, as long as we don't get voted off. Why don't we both think on it, and then reach a decision when we're ready?" she suggested. Wes looked at her and then at their hands. He looked back up with a smile. "Sounds good," he replied and they walked off the patio.

Tanya and Trip were watching them from the window. "Looks like something's going on with them," Tanya remarked and turned to her partner. Trip grinned. "I hope they'll finally get together," he said. "Looks like they will," Tanya said as they walked towards the living room where some other rangers were.

************Next time on Power Rangers Extreme Challenge*****************

"Your first mission is a obstacle course," T.J. said to the group of Rangers, who were gathered on the beach.

[Taylor: "An obstacle course?" She laughed. "A piece of cake. I completed the confidence course in Air Force basic training."]

Chad and Leo watched on the sidelines as Taylor and Mike ran through the obstacle course. "Man, she's just easing past that thing!" Chad said, surprised.

[Kelsey: "Taylor and Mike are definitely one of the pairs to beat in group 2. They're both soldiers, confident, and they work great as a team."]  
[Cassie: "If we're to make the top three, we have to beat Taylor and Mike."]

[Kat: "I'm trying to tell myself not to be jealous of Kim and Tommy being partnered together. But everytime I see them, it reminds me of the time they _were_ together.]

Kim hugged Tommy excitedly when they finished the obstacle course in the fastest time for their team. "All right! We did it!" Kim yelled, jumping around. 

T.J. looked down at his stopwatch. "Kim, you and Tommy have the lead in your group."

[Kat: "But Kim's my friend, too, and I know her. . .she wouldn't do that to me. She wouldn't."]

Author's Notes: I really apologize for the lame chapter. So what do you think, keep this format, or do it playwright? I can do it either way, and this seems like the better way to write it. Log on to http://red-and-pink.cjb.net to cast your vote on who you think's gonna win. . .just kidding ;) Hey, but please remember to check out my website. Let me know what you think of it too!  
I plan to update the stories just like a regular tv show, so you'll get the next part in one week. Sorry for the cliffhangers after every chapter. Reviews help, people ;) 


	3. Episode 2: Obstacles

Disclaimer: I have the disclaimer in the first part of the story, like I'm supposed to have. . .duh!

Author's Notes: Yay! Arigatou for the reviews, minna =) They really help me.   
A Tommy/Kim hook-up? Hmm. . .I actually wasn't planning on that. . .but you never know. It could happen ;) I won't that little spoiler out yet. I guess you Tommy/Kim shippers won't be sympathizing with Kat soon (Whoops. Did I just say that?)  
I love reading all of your reviews. Always keep reviewing. It gives me some ideas, and also lets me know everyone's alive =)  
I'll just keep the format I've kept for the first episode. I think it's less impersonal that way, and it's better to read too, than reading a playwright. There'll be more author's notes at the end. Okay, now onto the fic.

Power Rangers Extreme Challenge  
Episode Two: Obstacles  
By: stargazer_1017

[Taylor: A beautiful day on an island. . .and a perfect day to kick some people's butts." She grins]

"What do you think the mission is going to be like?" Karone asked Taylor. Both she and Taylor shared a room in the villa. 

"I don't know," Taylor replied, putting her hair up in a quick ponytail. "Why, are you nervous?"

[Karone: "Taylor asked me if I was nervous. Of course I am! I don't know what the expect out there."]

"Kinda. I just don't know what to expect, you know?" Karone replied, tying her shoelaces. "Maybe our partners can help us out when we're doing the mission? I mean, it's a team thing after all."

Taylor shrugged. "Maybe," she said. She placed her brush down and nodded at Karone and they walked out the door.

*****************************

~In Group 1's Villa~

"Hey, this mission's gonna be a breeze for you, isn't it?" Damon asked her partner, Katie. They were walking down the hall in their villa. "I mean, I heard you've got superhuman strength. These missions gotta have something to do with strength."

Katie shrugged modestly, smiling. "I'm okay at some stuff." She patted her partner on the shoulder. "You better be good at it too," she said.

Just then, a loud voice spoke up behind them. "Why are you treating me this way?"

[Lucas: "Out of all the rangers to get paired up with, they had to pair me with her." He shakes his head.]

"Nadira, for one minute, will you please shut your mouth," Lucas said, rubbing his temples. "If we're to pass this mission, I need to have some sort of inspiration out there." He looked Nadira up and down. "And you're not it."

Damon's mouth dropped open and Katie unsuccessfully tried to stiffle a giggle.

[Nadira: "I used to be evil, but I've learned my lesson. I'm good now.]

Lucas glared at Katie and Damon's back as they walked out.

[Nadira: "I guess my attitude needs to change too."]  
[Lucas: "Her annoying voice and laughing has _got_ to go."]

"Hmmph," Nadira huffed, crossing her arms and clamping her mouth shut. "Thank goodness," Lucas muttered. He pulled a pair of shades down over his eyes as they stepped into the bright sun.

****************

"Where are they?" Joel's voice was heard among the group of rangers gathered on the beach that morning. Angela rolled her eyes and nudged her husband's arm. 

[Carter: "A mission on the beach? I wonder what you producers have in mind."]

Max also craned his neck to look around.

[Max: "I'm ready. I'm ready to hit this. My partner?"]

Max turned to look at Kat, who was standing next to him.

[Max: "She's busy looking at her boyfriend."]

"Hey, you up to this?" Max asked. Kat turned to her partner. "Huh?" she asked, sounding distracted. Max rolled his eyes, turning to look at where Kat was glancing--at Tommy and Kim, who were on the other side of the group. They seemed busy discussing something. 

[Kat: "I know they're partners. . .and they're probably discussing the mission."]

"Hey, you up to this?" Mike asked Taylor. He was stretching his arms over his head.

"I like challenges," Taylor replied, squinting as she looked at Mike. "What about you? I hope you'll be able to handle it out there."

"Hey, don't forget, I'm a soldier."

Taylor laughed and rolled her eyes, a slight smile on her face. "Yeah, you're a soldier from space. Gravity's probably not as strong out there, huh?" she joked. Mike shook his head, smiling back at her. "You're lucky you're my partner," he said. Taylor laughed and then turned, along with the others, as the sounds of engines approached.

"Good morning, everyone," Kai yelled, as he and T.J. rode their four-wheelers closer to the group. 

"Oh man, that's awesome!" Trip said, looking at the vehicles. Next to him, Tanya nodded.

Kai slowed down his vehicle and awkwardly reached for buttons--and almost ran over Adam. "Whoa!" Adam yelled as he jumped out of the way. T.J. shook his head, and stopped his vehicle. After he got off, he helped Kai stop his.

[Cassie: "Someone's been out in space too long." She rolls her eyes and grins.]

Kai dusted the non-existant sand off his clothes, which was a blue muscle tee and surfshorts. "Anyone mention that, and I'll kill you," he warned.

"Hey! Remember, the kids are watching!" Damon yelled. 

T.J. shook his head again and put his hand on Kai's shoulder. "Morning guys," he greeted them. "I hope everyone's wide awake and ready to do this mission. Are you guys ready?"

The group chorused with a positive response and T.J. grinned. "Good! Well, your first mission is an obstacle course."

[Nadira: "A what?"]  
[Aisha: "An obstacle course?"]

"Yes, an obstacle course," Kai finally spoke up beside him. 

"Where is it?" Carlos asked.

T.J. pointed to his left, where a wall of bricks was. "It's enclosed in that space," he replied. "Let's head on over and the rules will be explained there." He and Kai started walking forward and the group followed behind.

"You sure you can handle this?" Mike asked Taylor again.

[Taylor: "An obstacle course?" She laughed. "A piece of cake. I completed the confidence course in Air Force basic training."]

"Of course I can. You forget--I'm an earth soldier," Taylor said. "I've dealt with this kind of stuff."

[Kendall: "Things are still awkward with Danny and I. But I really want to win this. I'm going to have to rely on Danny's strength to get me through this. I'm not a ranger--I don't do this physical stuff."]

"Don't worry, Kendall, I'll help you get through this," Danny said.

Kendall nodded and kept walking, her eyes focused on the wall before them. 

[Cassie: "Crap. If I'd thought we would be doing what's behind the wall, we should've gone and taken a look! I mean, I want to _not_ be surprised."]

"Man, I wished we did some sort of regular work out back at Switzerland," Jason told Trini. Trini laughed. "And to think, we probably could've been better at doing this when we were still rangers, right?" she asked him.

The group walked around the wall and everyone gasped. "Oh my gosh," Angela whispered. The course had several aspects of it and it extended well into the length of the beach. T.J. grinned at everyone. "Glad to see everyone likes the course," he joked with them. 

[Dana: "Boy, I wish I was Ryan right now. Big brother finally decided to go ahead with being a firefighter, and he's at training."]

"As you can see, there are many parts of the obstacle course," Kai started. He gestured towards the course. "First, you'll start off with the usual tire run, then climb up the ten foot vertical wall, cross the rope bridge to the other side, climb down the rope wall, dive under the rope net and low crawl until the end of the net, sprint to the pool and climb along the rope to the end of the pool, climb over two more vertical walls, and then finally sprint to the finish line."

"You and your partner will run through the course at the same time, so you can help each other out to finish the course. The top three teams from each group with the fastest times will be deciding who goes home. Any questions?" T.J. asked.

[Aisha: "Who came up with the course?"]  
[Rocky: "Low crawl?"]  
[Leo: Shakes his head. "I hope we get points just for showing up."]  
[Max: Pulls at his hair. "Auughhh!"]

T.J. smiled. "Great. You've got five minutes to do stretches and warm-ups, or discuss with your partner on how you'd like to do the course. Good luck, guys."

Lucas' jaw was wide open. "We didn't even have this kind of course doing training for Time Force!" he said in disbelief. Jen nodded and smiled. She was on the sand, doing stretches. "Don't tell me you're afraid, Lucas," she joked with him. Lucas shook his head quickly. "Of course not. I can't believe that thought even came to mind." Jen rolled her eyes and looked at Katie and Damon, who were standing with them, along with Carter and Nadira. 

Katie turned to Damon. "Guess my strength won't come in handy this time around," she told him. Damon gave a laugh. "Are you kidding me? I hope you're ready to pull me up the wall!" he told her.

Nearby, Maya and Zack were discussing their strategy. "I'm good with the ropes," Maya told him. Zack nodded. "Well, I can climb the walls, I guess. Man, being out of commission isn't too good," he admitted.

************************

"Okay! The first group to go up is Kelsey and Chad," T.J. announced five minutes later. Chad and Kelsey stepped forward to the rope on the sand, which marked the start of the course. 

Everyone applauded. "All right Kelse! Chad! Go for it!" Dana yelled at them. 

Kelsey turned to the group of rangers and gave them a thumbs-up sign. She and Chad gave each other a high five and then turned to face the course. "Ready?" Kai asked. He held up a gun and pointed it to the air. Then he fired and Kelsey and Chad went off. They finished the tire run at the same time and started the wall climb. Kelsey had an easy time, but Chad was lagging slightly behind.

"Come on Chad, you can do it!" Kelsey cheered him on as she neared the top of the wall. She got onto the small platform and turned around to help Chad. As soon as he neared the top, she extended her hand to help him up. With both safely on the platform, they crossed the one rope bridge.

[Leo: "The rope bridge looked nasty. There are actually two ropes. One is right above the other, parallel, so that you can hold onto the top rope with your hands and cross the distance with your feet using the bottom rope."]

"Hold it steady, hold it steady," Chad chanted as they started to cross the bridge. They started wobbling uncontrollably as they crossed.

"Whoa!" Kelsey yelled when her left hand slipped. Chad immediately reached for her hand and held on. "You okay?" he asked when Kelsey was able to direct her hand back to the rope. Kelsey nodded and they slowly made their way to the end of the bridge and to another platform. They climbed down the rope wall, and then dropped under the rope net a few feet away. 

"It's so long!" Kelsey yelled at Chad, who was low-crawling next to her. Chad nodded but didn't say anything. 

[Dana: "I give Kelsey and Chad a lot of credit doing this. They're the first to try out the obstacle course and they look so determined."]

Kelsey and Chad looked a bit worn out after the low-crawl, but they sprinted to the small man-made pool in the sand and jumped onto the rope and slowly made their way to the end of the pool. They sprinted again to the two vertical walls. Chad helped Kelsey climb the first one and then got up. Then they reached over the top of the second one, which was about three feet higher than the first one, and jumped over. They made the final sprint to the finish line and dropped on the sand. The group cheered for them as they made it over the line. Kelsey rolled over onto her back and said, "Kill me, kill me now."

[Angela: "If someone as athletic as Kelsey gets that beaten up over the course, I'm going to be--dying on the course."]

"Okay, next is Maya and Zack," Kai announced. 

[Maya: "I did pretty well on the climbing, but the low crawl was death."]  
[Zack: "Maya and I did our best. I helped to cheer her on during the competition and we got through."]

"We didn't beat Kelsey and Chad, but we're going to make the top three, right Maya?" Zack said, panting. They just finished the course and he had his arm around Maya's shoulders. "Right!" Maya agreed, smiling.

Pair after pair went after each other. Jen's face was flushed after she and Carter finished their run. "I hope we don't have a mission tomorrow," she told Carter, who was nodding furiously, trying to catch his breath.

[Katie: "Even Lucas and Nadira had a surprisingly team-centered run."]

Lucas cupped his hands together. "Here, climb onto my hands and I'll help you up," he told Nadira as they reached the final two vertical walls.

Trip's eyes widened at how Lucas was helping Nadira. "Guess he does want to win after all," he told Karone, who was standing next to him. 

************************

"We've come up with a strategy, and we're going to win this one," Kim said to the camera, with Tommy by her side, giving the camera a thumbs-up.

[Kim: "Tommy and I have always worked great as a team. That won't ever change."]

"Ready, go!" Kai yelled as he fired the gun into the air. 

Kim and Tommy ran off like a bullet. They climbed the wall steadily, making sure the other was all right. "Come on Tommy, we can do this!" Kim cheered as they reached the rope bridge. Kim went first, making her way quickly across the bridge. Then Tommy went onto the rope and went across.

[Jason: "Kim and Tommy are quite the team. They've even figured out a better way to get across the rope bridge than we all did."]

[Kim: "Tommy and I worked out a plan while everyone was watching the course. I think it worked pretty good."]

"We're almost there!" Tommy yelled as they both climbed the last two vertical walls. Afterjumping off, they quickly sprinted to the end. 

T.J. clicked the stopwatch. He looked up and smiled at the two. "If I'm not mistaken, Kim, you and Tommy have the quickest time in your group."

Kim's eyes widened with surprise and happiness. She jumped towards Tommy and hugged him excitedly. "All right! We did it! We did it Tommy!" Tommy grinned back at her and twirled her into the air as they rejoiced.

[Kat: "I'm trying to tell myself not to be jealous of Kim and Tommy being partnered together. But everytime I see them, it reminds me of the time they _were_ together."]

Kat watched the exchange between her boyfriend and friend and then turned away. "I can't watch this," she told Tanya, who was sitting next to her on the sand.

[Tanya: "I feel really sorry for Kat right now. I know she's not the jealous type. . .and I think she might be over reacting on Tommy and Kim's partnership."]

"Last but not least, the two soldiers, Taylor and Mike!" Kai announced. Everyone clapped as they approached the starting line. 

[Taylor: "First mission always sets the tone for how the game's gonna be played."]

When the gun fired, both ran to the wall and jumped on and climbed quickly to the top. Then they got the platform and started the rope bridge. Both leaned back, so that their feet and the rope was forward and so that they weren't wobbling the rope.

[Adam: "That was a good strategy." He paused. "Wish we'd thought of that."]

They got past the bridge in just seconds and then quickly climbed down the rope wall. Then they dived into the low-crawl, both of them sporting a look of concentration.

Chad and Leo watched on the sidelines as Taylor and Mike ran through the obstacle course. "Man, she's just easing past that thing!" Chad said, surprised. Leo shook his head, giving a low whistle.

[Rocky: "It looked like they were competing each other out there!"]  
[Alyssa: "All right, Taylor! She was doing awesome on the course."]  
[Leo: "What a perfect match for Mike."]

"Let's do it!" Taylor yelled as they climbed the last two vertical walls. "You got it!" Mike yelled back as they jumped over the last wall. They sprinted to the end and the whole group of rangers burst into applause. Taylor and Mike grinned. They turned to each other and gave a high-five. "That was awesome, partner!" Mike told Taylor. 

[Taylor: "We actually did it! Not that I had any doubts, of course."]

"Whew!" Kai said. "That was an awesome race you guys, well done." Everyone applauded at this, with a few loud cheers from some others. "Okay! We still have to get the official results of the mission, and then we'll announce the top three pairs of each group at almost dinnertime. These three teams, you'll have an hour to discuss who you'll send back home. Until then, everyone's got free time. Enjoy the island!"

Mike put his arm around Taylor's shoulders. "What do you say, partner? Let's go out and celebrate!" he asked cheerfully. When Taylor smiled and nodded, they walked off. They walked past Wes, who ran to meet up with Jen, who was standing with Trip, Rocky, and Karone. "Hey, what are you going to be doing?" he asked Jen.

"Why? You got something in mind?" Jen asked.

Wes shrugged slyly. "I've never been to this island yet. Why don't we do some touring?" he suggested.

[Trip: "As if Jen would refuse an offer from Wes to be alone with him."]

Jen nodded. "All right," she said. Wes offered his arm to her and Jen took it with a smile. After they walked off, Rocky turned to Trip and Karone. "What about you guys? Are you guys up for taking a trip around the island?" he asked.

Trip immediately frowned. "No, that's all right," he said quickly. Rocky shrugged. "What about you, Karone?"

Karone smiled. "Yeah, sounds like a great idea."

************************

[Cassie: "Is it just me? Or is Group Two kinda tense?"]  
[Kendrix: "After seeing that run by Mike and Taylor, some of us are kinda wondering if anyone's going to be able to touch them. I know it's only the first competition, but still!"]

"Cole here," Cole answered his growl phone at almost 4:00 in the afternoon that day.

"Cole? We've got the results of the mission. Call everyone in the villa down to the dining hall," Kai's voice came over. Cole turned to Alyssa, who was sitting next to him reading a magazine. She nodded and got up.

"I hope we make the top three," Cassie told Adam, as they walked to the dining hall. 

Kai and T.J. were already at the stage watching everyone pile in. "Everyone have a seat, and when we're all here, we'll make the announcement," T.J. said. When everyone was seated and quieted down, T.J. spoke up again. "All right, we've received the results of the mission! Now, the top pair overall received the highest points, which is 19. Every team after that has one point less, so the pair that came in second overall received 18 points, the third 17, and so-forth."

[Andros: "Everyone finished the course in pretty much the same time, probably a few minutes off or seconds or so."]

"For Group 2, the top pair in the group and overall are Mike and Taylor. Then the next two top pairs in Group 2 are Karone and Rocky, and Kendrix and Wes," T.J. reported.

"For Group 1, the top groups are Kim and Tommy, Jen and Carter, and Trini and Jason," Kai continued. "Both groups, you have an hour to deliberate. It doesn't have to a unanimous decision--it can be a majority. When you're done, both groups will announce who's leaving right before dinner and the pairs leaving, you'll be packing and leaving tonight."

Aisha and Katie gave each other a glance. "I'd hate leave now," Aisha said. Katie nodded. "Me too."

[Katie: "I'd hate to leave when I'm just getting to know everyone. We're supposed to have pillow fights, and midnight snacks, and pranks. . .the stuff I'd expect people do in the year 2002."]

"You guys have. . .starting now," T.J. said, glancing at his watch. "And Trip? No mind reading on any of these deliberations." Both hosts walked off stage.

[Trip: "I wasn't going to read their minds! The thought didn't even come up until he brought it up." He smiles mischiviously.]

A few feet away, Cassie turned to Adam. "I thought we came pretty close in making the top three. Maybe next mission."

"If we make it that far," Adam replied. Cassie's eyes widened. "You think they're voting us off?" she asked. 

**********Group 2's top three*****************

"So who do you want to get out of here?" Mike asked the group. 

[Rocky: "I really want the money. With fifty-thousand dollars, that could bring me a long way." His face takes on a look of deep thought. "I wonder if I'd be able to take an early retirement?"]

"I think we should get rid of the biggest threat," Rocky said suddenly. Everyone turned to him with a look of surprise. "I mean, I want to win the money, so that's my strategy," he explained. "But whatever you guys go with would be fine with me too.

"Who do you think the biggest threat is?" Wes asked. 

Rocky shrugged. "I don't know. Uh, maybe Alyssa and Cole?"

Taylor immediately shook her head. "No way, I am not voting them off. They deserve this chance as much as all of us do."

"But we need to vote off someone, Taylor."

[Taylor: "Of course we've gotta vote someone off, but I refuse to vote Alyssa and Cole off just because they're the biggest threat. No way. If you're as good as you think you are, face your toughest apponent in the end. Don't be a wuss and end up with the weakest team."]

"I know that," Taylor said. "Shouldn't we make this more competitive? I mean, voting off a threat's going to make the competition boring. We should vote off a weak team."

"And that would be. . ." Mike trailed off. 

"I think it would be Chad and Kelsey."

[Karone: "Chad and Kelsey would've been my pick too. I mean, they did great on the course, but they did score the lowest in the group. I guess it's because they went first, so they didn't have a strategy going."

"I vote for them too," Karone agreed. Rocky glanced at her. Then he nodded and said, "I'll vote them too."

"I'd hate to vote off my buddy, but I'm voting Tanya and Trip," Wes said. 

"I'm going with Chad and Kelsey too," Kendrix agreed. Everyone turned to Mike. He nodded. "I guess I'll vote Chad and Kelsey too."

**************Group 1 top three***************

"I don't know who to vote off," Kim confessed.

[Kim: "We have pretty strong teams in Group 1. I'm thinking, take off the biggest threat, or take off the weakest link."]

"I have to go with Aisha and Carlos," Carter started. "I think they didn't do so hot on the obstacle course."

[Trini: "I think Carter's going with the weakest link, but I was thinking of voting the biggest threat to us, which would be Katie and Damon."]

"Okay, I've got to ask, how are we voting? I mean, are we trying to get rid of the largest threat, or the weaker pair?" Trini asked the group.

"Well, we're not exactly playing as a group here," Tommy confessed. "Are we? I mean, we don't know all the missions for the challenge. Maybe we might need the stronger teams to help us get through some missions."

"Is that even possible?" Jen asked.

Tommy shrugged. "It could be, though with this kind of stuff, you can never be so sure."

[Carter: "If what Tommy said was true, I'd think going with the weakest pair would be best. Besides, as long as you can manage to stay in the top three, you have nothing to worry about."]

"What about Maya and Zack?" Jason questioned. 

"They did better than Aisha and Carlos," Jen stated. She sighed. "I'll go with Carter on this one, and say we take off Aisha and Carlos."

Tommy glanced around the circle of people and saw everyone nod their heads. He shrugged. "All right then, our decision is made."

********************

"I think they've decided," Trip said, to Alyssa, Cole, Max, Ashley, and Andros. 

"How do you know?" Ashley asked. Trip shrugged. "Because they look pretty relaxed," he said, pointing to Group 2's members, who were laying back in their chairs.

Max shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Man, Kat couldn't keep her mind on the competition. She kept glancing at Tommy and Kim."

Alyssa gave him a look of sympathy. "Kat has a lot on her mind right now, Max," she said.

"I know, but still. I'm her partner during this challenge, and she's supposed to have my back."

[Alyssa: "I know Max is a bit frustrated. He definitely wants to win the money."]

Alyssa shook her head and turned to look at Cole. When Cole turned and smiled at her, Alyssa smiled back.

[Alyssa: "I have personal reasons for winning the money too."]

*****************************

"All right, the hour is up!" T.J. said into the microphone about thirty minutes later. "We'll have Group 1 come up first with their decision."

Kim, Tommy, Jason, Trini, Jen, and Carter went onstage and faced everyone. Carter went to the microphone. "Group 1 has decided, and after a long and hard discussion, we've decided to go with Aisha and Carlos."

Aisha and Carlos turned to each other and then turned back to the stage. "I'm sorry guys," Carter said, his face showing regret.

[Carlos: "Was I surprised to be taken off? A little. I mean, if I was in the top three and I wanted to win this money, I would've gone with the group closest to the top three."]  
[Aisha: "I'm not surprised we got voted off. I mean, Carlos and I could've done a lot better."]

Kai nodded at the group. "Thank you, Group number 1. And next, can we have Kendrix, Wes, Mike, Taylor, Karone, and Rocky come up for the decision your group has made?" The three pairs went onstage and Kendrix took the mic. "We've also had a long and hard discussion, and we're going to go with Kelsey and Chad," Kendrix said.

[Kelsey: "Chad and I got voted off? I thought we did pretty good on the course."]  
[Chad: "I want to know why we got voted off, but I don't think I'll be asking."]  
[Max: "I almost thought they were voting off Kat and I. I'm surprised, but thankful, they didn't vote us off."]

Kendrix turned to Kai, who was coming up to her. She handed him the mic and Kai said, "Well, those are the decisions, so Aisha, Carlos, Kelsey, and Chad, sorry guys but you are packing after dinner and you've gotta leave before the night is over."

*****************************

"Disappointed in leaving?" Dana asked Kelsey. Kelsey shrugged as she put away some clothes from the drawer into her suitcase. "I'm sad that I only got to stay here for almost two days and I miss the chance to get to know the really cute guy rangers I never knew existed, but the decision? I'm not really disappointed in," Kelsey confided.

[Dana: "I'm sad Kelse is leaving. She's always been my best bud, behind Carter of course, and so much fun to be around."]

"Any predictions on who's going to win?" Dana asked.

Kelsey stopped packing long enough to reply, "Well, my big guess is Taylor and Mike."

"Taylor and Mike?"

[Kelsey: "Taylor and Mike are definitely one of the pairs to beat in group 2. They're both soldiers, confident, and they work great as a team."]

"They were unbeatable on that obstacle course today. I mean, just a little over ten minutes for that?" Kelsey exlaimed, again resuming to put away her clothes.

Cassie walked into the room with a small plate of cake in her hand. "Kelsey, I'm sorry you're going," she said sympathetically. Kelsey grinned at her. "So am I," she said.

[Cassie: "I really want to make the top three. There's gotta be a way to do it, and be able to stay in. Right now, Adam and I are in the fifth place in our group. If we're to make the top three, we have to beat Taylor and Mike."]

******************************

"Was it hard to make the decision?" Kat asked Tommy after dinner. They were in his room, with Lucas, whom Tommy shared the room with. 

Tommy shrugged. "It kinda was. I wasn't even sure who I wanted to vote off," he admitted. 

"I almost thought you guys were going to vote off Nadira and I," Lucas said, looking up from his magazine. 

"Why?" Kat asked.

Lucas shrugged. "Because I thought we sucked."

[Lucas: "I guess I'm being too hard on Nadira, but we'll probably do better next time."]

Someone knocked on the door and Kim poked her head in. "Hey Tommy--whoops!" She looked around the room. "I'll just come back later."

"No, it's okay," Tommy said hastily. "Did you need something?"

"I just needed to talk to you for a moment," Kim said. 

[Kim: "Kat just glared at me. She just glared. I wanted to tell her that there was nothing to worry about. Tommy and I were just friends now."]

"But it's not really important, so I'll come back later," Kim said and quickly shut the door.

Tommy looked at the door in puzzlement. Then he shrugged and sat back on the bed with Kat. Lucas' communicator rung out and an image of Katie appeared. "Lucas."

"What is it, Katie?"

"Wes and Jen are going out tonight, and Trip and I thought we'd go spy on them. Wanna join us?"

Lucas got up immediately. "I'll meet you guys at the door," he said and left the room.

Tommy turned to Kat and smiled. "Guess they've got a date going on," he told Kat. Kat smiled back--almost. Tommy frowned. "Kat, is there something wrong?"

[Kat: "I want to tell him what I feel. Tommy, the truth is, I feel uncertain."]

Kat shook her head quickly. "Nothing. I guess, I'm just tired from the day's events." Tommy nodded sympathetically at her. "Why don't you get some rest, huh? Tomorrow looks like a day off, and we can take a look around the island." Kat nodded back and smiled slightly. She gave her boyfriend a kiss goodnight and walked out of the room.

[Kat: "I know Tommy would never cheat on me. I know he loves me. Kim was his _ex_-girlfriend, and now she's his friend. But Kim's my friend too. . .and I know her. She wouldn't do that to me. She wouldn't."]

******************Next time on Power Rangers Extreme Challenge*******************

[Ashley: "The locals have been acting weird towards Andros, Karone, and Trip ever since we've gotten here."]

Andros and Ashley walk to a restaurant during the night and are met with protesters, following them with signs, one of them saying, "Go home you freak!"

[Ashley: "How can these people be so mean to them? I love Andros with all my heart. . .and they treat a human being like us with such disrepsect."]

"Trip? What happened to Trip?" Cassie asked. Katie had her communicator open, with Lucas on the other side. "He's been brought to the hospital. When we went out last night, someone threw something at his head," Lucas said worriedly.

[Cole: "Things are getting way too dangerous."]

"Andros, look out!" Cassie yelled. Andros was in the water when all of a sudden, locals above him in the cliffs start throwing rocks down at him.

Author's Notes: Hope you liked this ep. It came out longer than I thought it would. Uh, I know I was saying that I would update the story every week, but I'm so excited to post the stories, I think I'll just post it when it's completed. I'm just as excited as you all when I put up the stories =) So enjoy them, and also please review. 


	4. Episode 3: Outcasts

Disclaimers: Disclaimers for Power Rangers in the first part of the story. . .oh! But I forgot to add the disclaimer for Real World/Road Rules. Yes, I don't own that either. . .the idea of the challenge belongs to MTV. There you go.

Author's Notes: Finally, we get to episode three =) A lot of tension will be building up and people will start to be bitchy and prickly, so the rating's going to change along with the "language". . .and aughh! So many romance plot lines to follow! Only a few will actually make it onto the show. Despite this, I hope you'll all still stay tuned to the rest of the series as it builds.   
If you're wondering about the standings of each pair in the competition, here are the results:

Group 1

Tommy and Kim
17

Carter and Jen
16

Jason and Trini
13

Lucas and Nadira
10

Leo and Dana
8

Damon and Katie
7

Joel and Angela
6

Zack and Maya
3

Danny and Kendall
2

Carlos and Aisha (1)

Group 2

Mike and Taylor
18

Rocky and Karone
15

Wes and Kendrix
14

Cole and Alyssa
12

Adam and Cassie
11

Andros and Ashley
9

Max and Kat
5

Trip and Tanya
4

Chad and Kelsey (1)

As you can see, Taylor and Mike are at the head of all pairings, with 18 points. I crossed out Carlos and Aisha from group one and Chad and Kelsey from group two because they were voted off. I also didn't put their points--every pair that's voted off will not have points The number "1" in parenthesis next to their name shows at what mission they were voted off on. I'll update this table on each episode as it changes. I will add the table of rooming when I update with the next episode.  
I also wanted to add one stress--in the MTV show, they are banding together because they are Real World vs. Road Rules. In this challenge, it isn't Group 1 vs. Group 2--it's every man for himself (or woman for herself *wink*). The reason they're divided into the groups is to make the elimination easier and more reasonable than just one big group.   
Okay, that's it for the notes. More notes at the end. As always, please review--and when you do, please leave your e-mail address too so I can respond to your comment if needed. Now, onto episode three! 

Power Rangers Extreme Challenge  
Episode Three: Outcast  
By: stargazer_1017

Dana winced when she pulled off the covers and got out of bed. She turned to look at her roommate, Kendall, who was lying on her own bed. "Ouch! Is it just me, or are you hurting too?"

[Dana: "It's been about two days since the terrible obstacle course, and my muscles still hurt like crazy."]

Kendall rolled off her bed and landed on the floor with her knees. She looked up to Dana and laughed. "Nope, it's me and you," she assured her with a smile. Dana laughed as Kendall crawled to a chair and helped to get herself off the floor. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"What, that if we had a mission today like what we had two days ago, we'll be dead?" Dana replied lightly, grabbing her brush and running it through her hair. 

[Kendall: "Dana said it so calmly, like it was nothing. The things you train for when you're a ranger." She shakes her head.]

Kendall opened her mouth to give a reply when there was knocking on the door. Dana turned to Kendall and when she nodded back at her, Dana walked carefully to the door and opened it. Her face immediately brightened into a smile. "Hey guys, good morning!" she said, opening the door wide to reveal Carter, Joel, and Angela.

"Hey Dana. We're heading down to the dining hall to get some breakfast. You ready?" Carter asked.

Dana nodded. "I'll be ready in just a minute. Why don't you guys come on in?" Carter turned to Joel and Angela, who nodded at him and they walked into the room. Kendall smiled as the three walked in. "Good morning," she greeted them. 

"Hey Kendall," Angela smiled at the young woman. "So how are you enjoying the challenge so far?"

Kendall rolled her eyes. "How am I enjoying it? I'm tired, my muscles hurt, and I'm anxious because I don't know when the next mission's going to happen or what's it going to be," she replied. Then she gave a smile. "But other than that, I'm fine."

Everyone laughed and Dana walked into the bathroom and shut the door. "Hey, I understand what you're going through. I didn't train like these guys," Angela said, pointing to Carter and Joel. 

"Heck no! Only the special ones go through training like we did," Joel said, straightening his vest and smiling smugly. Kendall raised her eyebrows at Joel and turned to Angela. "Is he always like this?" she asked jokingly.

"Yes," Carter and Angela replied, laughing.

*****In the Dining Hall**************

"So what did you want to do tonight?" Wes asked as he stabbed a piece of egg on his plate. He was seated at a round table with Jen, Karone, Ashley, Andros, and Katie.

[Katie: "Ever since we got here, Jen and Wes haven't spent a night apart." She pauses and purses her lips. "I mean, they've been out with each other every night." She pauses again. "You know what I mean."]

"Well, I was hoping we'd go shopping at the small shopping center that they have down here," Katie replied, digging into her pancakes.

Wes laughed. "Uh, Katie? I was talking to Jen." Katie looked up and saw everyone smiling at her. "I knew that," she insisted.

Jen shook her head. "Isn't there a small fair going on somewhere? I think I read it in the newspaper. I've never been to one before."

Wes shrugged. "Then we'll go tonight. How does that sound."

"Sounds good to me," Jen replied. Ashley's eyes lit up and she turned to Andros. "Hey, we haven't done anything on the island yet," she told him and then turned to look at Jen and Wes. "Mind if we follow you guys? You know, like a double date?"

Jen looked at Wes and he shrugged. "Sure, it'll be fun," Jen said, smiling. She turned to look at Katie and Karone. "If you guys are up for some rides at the fair, why don't you guys join us too?" Katie nodded. "Yeah, but I'll probably end up meeting up with you guys later."

[Karone: "I wanted to go out with them. The fair did sound like fun, but the other night I went out with Rocky, some people were acting weird towards me."]

***Flashback***

_"How does some ice cream sound?" Rocky asked as he and Karone were walking down the street. Karone nodded. "That sounds great," she replied with a smile._

_All of a sudden, someone bumped into Karone--hard. She fell to the ground and looked up at who bumped her. There was a middle aged man standing above her, eying her coldly. Karone frowned and stared back at him._

_"Karone! You okay?" Rocky asked, extending his hand to help her up. Karone nodded as she took his hand and got up. As she dusted herself off, Rocky frowned at the man. "Hey, next time, watch where you're going. Someone could get hurt," he said politely, yet firmly._

_The man's glare shifted from Karone to Rocky. "You dare to be seen with. . ._**_her_**_?"_

_"And what is that supposed to mean?"_

_The man turned to look at Karone, who was also frowning slightly at him, and then turned back to Rocky. Then he spun on his heel and stalked off without another word._

***End Flashback***

Ashley frowned at Karone's unresponsiveness. "Karone? Karone, are you okay?"

Karone looked up from her food to see everyone looking at her with concern. "Is there something wrong?" Andros asked, his attention on her immediately. Karone forced a smile on her face. "No, I'm okay. I was just thinking," she said, waving her hand dismissedly.

"Thinking about what?" Andros asked.

Karone looked at everyone and opened her mouth to speak. Then she closed it--then she said, "Have any of the locals been acting weird towards any of you?" 

"Weird? What do you mean?" Wes asked, his mouth partly full with food.

"I mean, like have they been taunting or just saying--different stuff."

Katie frowned. "No, nothing like that. And I've been out millions of times."

Jen turned to Katie. "Oh_ really_? And when have you had the time to go out? I thought you said you were staying in the villas with the others."

[Katie: "Whoops. Almost got caught there."]

"Well. . .when you weren't looking. . .I snuck out."

Wes turned back from Katie to look at Karone. "When we were out there, no one said anything to us. Well, okay, some kids actually came forward with cameras and paper to sign our autographs on, but that was it. Nothing really out of the ordinary. Did something happen when you were walking the streets?"

Karone looked thoughtful for a moment and then shook her head. "No, I guess it must've been me or something."

"Still wanna come out with us?" Jen asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin. Karone shook her head. "No thanks. I think I'll just stay in with everyone tonight."

Jen nodded and then her communicator beeped. She raised her left hand, which held her chrono morpher, and an image of Kai appeared on it. "Jen, tell the others that a mission's coming up soon. Tell everyone to be ready."

[Karone: "Another day. . .and another chance at a mission. . ."]

*********************

"That was so much fun," Ashley declared with a smile. It was almost 10:30 p.m., and she and Andros were walking towards the door of the restaurant they just ate at. Andros shrugged. "It was okay," he said nonchalantly.

Ashley turned to him with a surprised look on his face. "Okay? The night was just okay?" She laughed and shook her head and took a hold of Andros' hand as they walked outside. "You were screaming on the roller coaster back there."

Andros laughed too. "Okay, so it was better than just okay," he admitted.

[Ashley: "When you know a guy, you really know him." She smiles widely."]

All of a sudden their laughter stops as a bottle crashes on the ground near them. "Huh?" Ashley wonders outloud, spinning around to look at where the bottle came from. Her eyes widened at the sight before them--there were a crowd of people, with picket signs. Ashley gasped the messages on the signs.

"We don't want any aliens on earth."

"We are Earthers!"

"Go home you freak!"

"What's going on?" she called out to the crowd. "What are you doing?"

A middle aged woman pointed to the couple. "You and your boyfriend are invading our land. We are earthers--send this alien home!" she yelled with a heavy pacific accent and pointed at Andros. The crowd roared with agreement and started waving their signs and torches. Another bottle flew into the air and Andros shielded Ashley, but the bottle hit just a few feet behind them. Andros slowly got up to turn to the crowd, but Ashley spoke first. "How dare you speak to him this way!" she started but the woman cut her off again.

"You call yourself an earther! This alien doesn't belong on this island, and he doesn't belong on the planet! Along with the other two aliens that you have brought here!" 

[Andros: "When she said, the other two aliens, I realized she was talking about Karone and Trip."]  
[Ashley: "Come to think of it, Trip did mention something about him being harassed by locals when he first got here. They made fun of his hair and the way he looked."]

Ashley reched for the morpher on her left hand and tensed. "Is there a problem here?" another accented voice spoke up behind Ashley and Andros. They spun around and saw a police officer. 

"Officer, thank goodness," Ashley said, taking off her grip on her morpher as she and Andros approached him. She pointed to the crowd. "Can't you do anything about this?" 

The officer looked at the picketers and stared at them. After a long moment, he turned back to the couple. "Why don't you two head back to your villas? You'll be safer there."

Ashley's jaw dropped. "You--you can't do anything to stop them?"

The officer sighed. "The best I can do is to tell you to get home before something else erupts. Now, you can take my advice, or you can stay here and take the risk. You chose."

[Andros: "It was a do or die move--and the officer wasn't even going to step in to stop the people from protesting."]

Ashley shook her head unbelievingly. She was going to open her mouth to say something when Andros squeezed her hand. "Come on, Ash, let's get out of here," he said quietly. Ashley turned to him and then back at the crowd. They were still holding up their signs and holding their torches.

[Ashley: "What bothered me the most was that these people weren't afraid of the police officer because they knew he was probably on their side."]

*************************

"Did you hear about the protesting last night?" Trini asked the next day at breakfast. She, Kim, Zack, Tanya, Adam, and Damon were sitting at a table together.

"You mean with Andros and Ashley? Yeah, she told me about it last night," Tanya said.

[Tanya: "Ashley was pretty distraught when she arrived--and since I knew her back at Angel Grove High, I've never seen her as stressed out as she did when she and Andros got back."]

"Man, how can they be treating them this way?" Damon wondered, taking a sip of water. "I mean, they're humans too. It's not like they're growing some kind of tentacles out of their heads or bodies or whatever. . ."

*********At another table********

"Poor Ashley and Andros," Alyssa murmured, shaking her head.

[Cole: "We were right behind Ashley and Andros last night, and all of a sudden, this crowd of people cut us off and started to chase after them with some signs and lit torches."]

"The Galaxy Rangers and I came from space too," Mike said.

"But you weren't actually born in space," Taylor pointed out. "You were born on Earth."

"People shouldn't be treating others this way," Adam said. "When it comes down to it, we all hurt and live the same way, whether you're from KO-35 or Zybria."

Then a tapping sound was heard throughout the dining hall. "Uh-oh, mission?" Danny wondered outloud.

[Max: "And I'm still hurting from the obstacle course, thank you very much."]

Kai and T.J. walked onto the stage. "Good morning everyone. How are you all doing?" T.J. asked, taking the microphone.

"I'm still hurting!" Joel yelled to the two onstage. Everyone laughed and Angela again extended her hand to slap Joel on the arm. "Thank you for that comment, Joel," Kai said. "You're all wondering what mission's coming up and we're here to set your mind at ease."

[Dana: Moans. "Oh no!"]  
[Wes: Flexes his arm muscles and winces a bit. Then he cracks a smile. "Still alive."]

"Don't worry, it isn't as harsh as the obstacle course you did at first. You guys are lucky--this is a fairly easy. . .well, I shouldn't say easy, but less physically-demanding challenge. Everyone, get dressed in shorts and a sleveless shirt or some sort of cool gear, because I guarentee you'll be out in the sun for a long period of time."

[Max: "Less physically demanding? What the heck does that mean? I didn't know they could actually give us that kind of challenge."]

"Everyone, just be ready before lunch, because as soon as we get some food in your stomachs, your mission's going to start."

******Noon-time*************

"What do you think the mission's going to be about?" Dana asked Carter as they stood right outside the dining hall, waiting for Kai and T.J. to show up.

"I have no idea. I thought all these mission or challenges were going to be. . .challenging," Carter replied. He turned to look at Dana. "Still hurting from the past mission," he asked with a grin.

Dana gave him a friendly slap on the arm. "Hey, watch who you're making fun of," she warned, but smiled up at him. 

"Hey guys," Tommy said as he and Kat approached them. Carter smiled at them. "Hey. Are you guys up for today's mission?"

"Are you kidding? I'm think I'm the only one still hurting from this mission," Kat replied. "Tommy here says the mission was great exercise."

[Dana: "Well look at the guy--he's buff!"]

Jen walked towards the group and asked, "Hey you guys, have you seen Kim?" When Jen mentioned Kim's name, Kat bristled slightly--but enough for Tommy to notice.

[Tommy: "She's doing it again."]

Tommy opened his mouth to reply when Trini and Katie walked towards them, along with other pairs ready for the mission. "Jen?" Trini said, "If you're looking for Kim, she was looking for you--she said you had something of hers."

"Where's she at?" Jen asked.

Trini pointed towards the inside of the dining hall and Jen went inside. Suddenly, T.J. and Kai walked up to the group that had already formed. "Is everyone ready?" Kai asked.

Kendrix shook her head. "There are still some people in the dining hall finishing up," she replied. Kai nodded and everyone waited for the others. After a few minutes, everyone was accounted for and Kai and T.J. led everyone outside. "Okay, I know you're wondering what the mission's going to be about and we promised it was less physical-demanding than the obstacle course and it is. Your second mission is a treasure hunt."

[Max: "Say what?"]  
[Mike: "A treasure hunt? What kind of challenge is that?"]  
[Ashley: Bites her lip. "The mission itself sounds easy--but if we have to go out into the public, it could be dangerous."]

"A treasure hunt? How does that work?" Kendrix asked.

"You'll all be given different clues that lead to different places around the city," T.J. explained. "But all of your clues will lead up to one certain place in the city--that's where the treasure is."

"There will be 17 stones there, for each group of course, and each will be marked with numbers ranging from 1-17," Kai continued. "If you're the first pair to arrive at the stones, you will grab the number 17, standing for the amount of points that we'll add to you and your partner's score at the end of the mission. For example, Taylor and Mike, you have 18 points right now, and if you grab stone number 17, your total score for the challenge so far will be 35."

[Cassie: "Over my dead body."]

"After you get your stone you and your partner must bring it back here to check in with the points you have. Any questions?" Kai looked around the group and saw a hand go up. "Yes, Zack?"

Zack put his hand down. "What if we don't have a stone to bring back?" he asked.

Kai turned to T.J. who answered the question. "Well, you need a stone in order to get points. Otherwise, you and your partner will have no points to add to your total." He looked around to see if anyone else had any other questions. When no one had any, he turned to Kai. "Let's get started."

[Kim: "I think the scavenger hunt's going to go great. As long as we can get to the stones in time, before anyone else in our group does, then we'll keep our lead. At this point, it's still kinda early in the game. . .so as long as we don't get stone number one, we'll can always catch up."]

"Think we need a strategy?" Alyssa asked as she and Cole signed their names in on a piece of paper. Cole shook his head. "With your brains, we'll pull through this," Cole said confidently.

[Danny: "Kendall and I really need to work together on this. It's still been tense between us. Everytime I talk to her, she doesn't want to say _anything_."]

Danny approached Kendall and asked, "You ready to sign in?" Kendall nodded and went towards the table without a word to Danny.

[Danny: "It's tearing me apart because even when I had a crush on her, we were so much closer than this."]

By the time Max and Kat signed their names in, more than half the amount of pairs had gone off in search of their next clue. Max opened his piece of paper and read. He looked at Kat, who leaned over to read with him, and said, "Damn, it's all in rhyme too. It says 'Bust some moves, can you take the heat?; Before you groove onto the next clue, you've got to get this beat."

Kat frowned. "What does that mean?"

[Max: "I was thinking bust moves. . .groove. . .beat. . .then it hits me!"]

Max looked up at Kat excitedly. "I think I got it! Come on, we have to head down to the arcade--and it's on the other side of the town." Kat nodded and they rushed off--but not before Kat turned around to look for someone. Max caught this and gave her a little tap on her arm. "Come on, Kat!"

[Kat: "I looked around for Tommy and Kim, and they were gone by the time Max and I had caught on to our clue."]

"Hey, taxi!" Max called out, waving his hand in the air. When the taxi came, he and Kat got in. "Take me to the arcade," Max told the driver. The driver nodded and drove off. When they reached the arcade, Max paid the driver and they walked into the arcade.

"What do you think the clue means?" Kat asked Max, who was looking around the darkened room. Max didn't reply--instead, he rushed towards one of the arcade games. "A game?" She asked, looking at the dance buttons on the ground which the person playing would obviously have to step on to play the game.

Max nodded. "Maybe the clue's on this game," he said, going all around the machine to look for a piece of paper. Kat stepped forward and helped him too. 

"If you want your next clue, you must beat the game."

Max kept looking around the machine, but Kat turned around and turned to look at the man who spoke. "Are you--the one who owns this arcade?" she asked the short, stout man with a smile on his face.

He nodded. "Does your clue not say anything about defeating the game?" he asked.

Kat turned to Max, who had stopped looking. Max brought out the piece of paper. "You've got to get this beat," he read. "Beat. . .we have to play the game?"

When the man nodded again, Max and Kat turned to each other and said at the same time, "You're playing."

"Why me?" Kat asked. Max sighed and looked at the game.

[Max: "It did look like fun. And I had heard of Dance Dance Revolution."]

Max turned to the arcade owner. "How many times do I have to beat it?"

"One level is fine enough."

Max nodded. "Okay, then," he said, rolling up the sleeves of his orange shirt. "Let's get it on."

******Across town***********

[Ashley: "Andros and I headed towards the fairgrounds with our clue--it sounded like where the next clue would be located."]

"We're getting there, Andros. We've already got the second clue. We're almost there," Ashley said as she and Andros around the dunking booth at the deserted fairgrounds. "Know what surprises me though?"

"What's that?" Andros asked. He stopped looking around the dunking booth and turned to look at Ashley.

"We've walked around the whole town and we've seen no protesters, no people, nothing. . ." Ashley said.

[Ashley: "It's not that I wanted locals to be there ready to hurl things at us. It just really . . .surprised me. I mean, they probably know about our mission today. The whole city's probably been alerted."]

Andros didn't respond. Instead, he took back the piece of paper out from his pocket and moved to stand next to Ashley. "The next clue's in a fun and breathtaking place. So get wet and don't get a sunburned face." He frowned. "Do people get sunburned when they do the dunking booth?" he asked.

Ashley's faced took on a pensive look. "Well, the dunking booth's our best bet--fun place. . .wet. . ." Then she frowned. "But the fairgrounds open at sunset. You can't get sunburned."

"A pool maybe?" Andros suggested. Ashley nodded at the suggestion and they went on their way.

[Andros: "We went to the pool and asked one of the lifeguards there if maybe he had a clue for us."]

"And you are?" the lifeguard asked. "We're Ashley and Andros," Ashley replied. The lifeguard shook his head. Ashley turned to Andros. "Okay, the pool's out of the question. . ." Then her eyes lit up. "Maybe it's at the beach!"

"The beach?"

"Yeah, fun, wet, sunburned. . .all of that happens at the beach." Ashley grabbed Andros' hand and they walked off to the main street to get a cab. After they reached the beach, they got out and looked around. "It's too large a place to cover," Ashley said, disappointed. "Maybe I was wrong."

Andros didn't reply. Instead, he had his gaze directed at something. "What is it, Andros?" Andros pointed to a cliffside. "Right there," he said. Ashley squinted her eyes and saw what he was pointing at--a large red and yellow flag floated in the breeze on the top of the cliff on the roadside overlooking the ocean below. "That's it! Come on, let's go!" Ashley said as she and Andros started running towards the cliff.

[Adam: "Then that's when things started to go haywire."]

"Look down there," Andros said, pointing down into the water from where they stood on the cliffside. There was a small buoy in the water. Andros turned back to Ashley. "I think that's our next clue." Andros started to back up a bit and Ashley asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to dive into the water," Andros replied.

[Ashley: "I had a bad feeling about it."]

Andros dived in and his head bobbed up a couple of seconds later. "I guess this'll be awhile," he said, grinning. He dived in again.

Ashley watched him, to make sure he was okay, and then she heard a large commotion behind her. She spun around. "Oh no," she moaned, watching as a crowd of people with picket signs walked towards her. 

"Where is he?" a woman, the same one who spoke for the picket-holding crowd a night ago, called out.

Ashley narrowed her eyes. "None of your business," she said.

[Cassie: "Adam and I ran as fast as we could from the beach to help Ash out. By the time we got there, they started picking up rocks and stones."]

Cassie ran to Ashley's side. "You okay?" she asked and Ashley nodded. "Where's Andros?" Cassie asked, looking around.

Before Ashley could answer, the crowd moved to the edge of the cliff. "There he is!" the woman screamed. 

[Adam: "Then stones and rocks started flying into the water."]

"Andros, look out!" Cassie yelled.

"Andros! Stay under as long as you can!" Adam called out to his friend. Then he turned to Cassie and Ashley. "Try to keep these guys down and I'll go for help." When he ran off, Cassie moved to halt the crowd, but they didn't stop. 

[Cassie: "I tried to stop them, but I couldn't just knock them out to get my way. These are civilians."]  
[Ashley: "But I couldn't stay by. Andros was diving under water and coming up for air, and he couldn't hold his breath underwater for so long."]

Ashley held her fists in the air. "Stop it! **_Stop it!_**" She screamed, rage on her usually cheerful expression, her eyes shut tightly.

[Cassie: "Then it happened."]

The rocks that the people were throwing stopped suddenly in mid-air. Then they flew back and hit the people. Cassie gasped as some people fell to the ground, while some winced when they were hit. Ashley flew open her eyes and some of those still standing were knocked to the ground by some invisible force.

[Andros: "With the time Ashley was with me, I had taught her how to use telekensis. She was a quick learner--thank goodness."]  
[Cassie: "But even though Ashley had reason to knock those guys out, we all still got in a lot of trouble."]

************Back at the villas***************

Christian McGee paced on the stage, apparently upset. Then he stopped and turned to all the rangers. "We're--obviously having some problems staying here, so we have to leave. I've booked you all tickets to Hawaii, where we'll continue the rest of the challenge."

[Angela: "I love Hawaii--but I'm upset that we had to leave this way."]

Cassie, who was standing next to Ashley and Andros, put her arm around Ashley's shoulder and squeezed. "We have, innocent civilians hurt from today's event. . ."

[Cassie: "Innocent?"]

". . .and Trip's been injured," Christian McGee finished. 

"Trip?" Cassie asked. "Where is he?" Everyone turned to Katie, who had her morpher open. Lucas's hollographic image was above her morpher. "He's at the hospital," Lucas replied. 

"Is he all right?" Dana, who was standing next to Katie, asked.

Lucas nodded. "A bump on the head from something someone threw at him, but he's fine. Can't wait to get back to the villa," he replied. As his image disappeared, everyone turned back to Christian McGee. "The last mission is aborted, and will not resume until we have settled ourselves in Hawaii and made sure we're actually _welcome_ there."

[Leo: Rolls his eyes. "This jerk acts like it's our fault. We're rangers--if anyone's in danger, we step in and take the challenge."]

Andros and Ashley walk outside, holding hands as they and the other rangers head back to the villa to pack their things. They say nothing as they walk, and their hands part as their arms go to encircle each other.

********Next time on Power Rangers Extreme Challenge*********

[Leo: "Mike and Taylor are definitely getting closer after each day."]

"It's not fair," Cassie muttered as she and Adam walked away from the mission they just had. "They're soldiers--they know this kinda of stuff."

[Karone: "The top three pairs in Group 2 have been changed somewhat since the last mission."]  
[Adam: "Cassie really wants to be in the top three and she wants to win the money."]  
[Alyssa: "I overheard Cassie talking with Ashley and Rocky about how in order for them to make the top three, they needed to split Mike and Taylor."]

"So in order for us to win, we've gotta try and get Mike and Taylor to turn on each other, so they won't work as well as a team. Right now, they're almost untouchable. Almost," Cassie said, looking back and forth between Ashley and Rocky.

[Alyssa: "And I was right there!"]

"Hey, just let the game play out! If you want to go after Mike and Taylor by splitting them up, do it by yourself. Don't bring in other people and start some kind of a mutiny!" Alyssa said, clenching her fists as she approached the three. Ashley opened her mouth to speak but Cassie got up quickly and faced Alyssa. "If you can tell me that being competitive's against the rules for the competition, then I'll stop. But if you can't say anything, back off."

[Adam: Shakes his head. "The things people do for money."]  
[Rocky: Looks excited. "Let the battle begin!"]

Author's Notes: Whacko ep, huh? I know, it's a different one. . .I have no idea how I came up with this idea. I figured some people have different opinions of things--like how people don't want us to be in Afghanistan and some do *shrug*  
Oh, and just some more explainations I didn't add at the beginning. People, I paired everyone up for a _reason_. There will be obstacles people will face when they're not paired up together but just because people are not paired together, it doesn't mean that they will not end up together. And like I said at the notes at the top, there are a lot of romance plots to follow--unfortunately, not all will be followed. I'm still working on who's going to be with who. . .but most of the storylines I have down are already chosen. The only suggestions that I'm still looking for are missions. Running out of ideas for that one. . .  
And sorry, not so many Tommy/Kim moments in this ep--or maybe not much in the next. But this "pairing" will go through a lot coming up. That I can promise.  
I bet you're thinking, Hawaii? Yep, that's true. . .hopefully more missions will come up on that one. . . and a more romantic place to be too *wink, wink*  
Anything else you guys wanna let me know about? E-mail me: stargazer_1017@lycos.com


	5. Episode 4: Outside Challenges

Author's Notes: Finally, episode four of the Challenge. Yay! I'm kinda ticked that MTV's prolonging the life of RW/RR: Battle of the Seasons by not showing the episode when they're _supposed_ to. . .but you get what you can, right?  
Like I said in my bio, I am going to be posting this on a webpage. It should have pictures and the episodes going, and other information, so hopefully I can post that soon. I'm being too overwhelmed with the intenet right now, so I don't know how long that's going to take. I'm working on the "snaps" for the opening of the series. Going overboard? Maybe just a little ;)  
Since the last episode, the scoreboard hasn't changed, so I'll post the rooming assignments when the group was in America Samoa:

Group 1 Rooming Asignments

Tommy and Carlos

Joel and Danny

Zack and Damon

Carter and Lucas

Jason and Leo

Kim and Jen

Nadira and Angela

Dana and Kendall

Katie and Trini

Maya and Aisha

Group 2 Rooming Assignments

Ashley, Tanya, and Kat

Kendrix and Alyssa

Karone and Taylor

Cassie and Kelsey

Mike and Andros

Adam and Cole

Wes and Trip

Rocky, Chad, and Max

This, of course, will change when the group is in Hawaii. The new rooming assignment will be posted in episode six (I'll explain why episode six at the end notes).

Power Rangers Extreme Challenge  
Episode 4: Outside Challenges  
By: stargazer_1017

"The beach looks great," Kim commented as the van she was in headed towards their new hotel. She turned to Trini and Aisha, who were sitting beside her. "Guys up for some splashes?" Aisha and Trini nodded and Rocky, who was sitting behind them with Damon and Max, leaned forward and asked, "Hey, aren't you going to invite us too?"

[Kim: "Rocky will never change. . .hope he never does."]

Kim rolled her eyes as Aisha and Trini laughed. Kim turned around. "Sorry about that Rocky. Why don't you guys come too?"

Rocky grinned. "I'd love to. Why don't we see if everyone's free? I mean, it would be a great time to get to know each other--take away some of the competitiveness of the competition," he suggested.

************In another van heading for the airport*************

[Zack: "All of a sudden, my communicator rings out."]

Zack turned to look at Karone, who was sitting beside him. "Another mission?" Karone asked. Zack shrugged. "Man, we just got here. They can't send us on a mission already," he said, shaking his head. He pressed a button on his communicator and said, "Zack here."

"Hey Zack, it's Rocky."

[Zack: "I was ready to strangle him through the communicator."]  
[Angela: "Zack looked like he was ready to strangle Rocky through the communicator--and I felt the same way he did."]  
[Karone: "A lot of us are still kinda tense from the last mission we had back at America Samoa."]

_*************  
"Andros, watch out!" Cassie yelled to the water below as the locals began to throw some rocks and stones into the water.  
"No!" Ashley screamed, and all of a sudden, the rocks and stones were flew back to the locals.  
*************  
"We're--obviously having some problems staying here, so we have to leave," Christian McGee said to the group that night, when they were all together.  
*************_

"What is it, Rocky," Zack sighed, speaking back to Rocky.

"Kim had an idea--after we unpack our things, why don't we head down to the beach? The weather's pretty good today, and the beach is awesome," Rocky replied.

Zack looked towards the window, as did everyone else in the van. "Hey, you're right," he agreed. He turned to look at the others in the van. "You guys up for it?" he asked. When everyone nodded, Zack replied back, "Where are we all going to meet, Rocky?" 

Kim's voice came through Zack's communicator. "How about in the hotel lobby about thirty minutes after we check in?" she suggested. 

*********On the beach************

[Jen: "We're all laying on the beach and then it hits me."]

Jen rubbed some lotion on her skin and smiled as she watched some people play volleyball not a few feet away. Then her gaze shifted to the other pack of rangers playing in the water. She turned to look at the person on her right and saw Nadira, who was looking bored.

[Jen: "I have no idea what to talk to Nadira about."]

Jen smiled at Nadira when Nadira looked at her. Nadira smiled back, but turned away and then yawned. Jen frowned. She turned to Kendall, who was sitting on her left. Jen gave her a questioning look and Kendall shrugged.

[Kendall: "Nadira seemed really bored on the beach. Everyone was playing on the sand, or playing in the water. Jen and I were talking with each other for awhile, but no one really talked to Nadira."]

Kendall cleared her throat. "Uh, so, Nadira?" When Nadira turned to acknowledge Kendall, she spoke up again. "How do you like the challenge so far?"

Nadira shrugged. "It's been okay so far. I mean, the obstacle course was a killer on my hair and nails. . .but otherwise, I think we'll make it," she replied. When she didn't go further and Jen and Kendall didn't add anything else, Nadira turned to face the water.

[Jen: "There had to be something else to talk about with Nadira."]

"So. . .is that your real hair color?" Jen asked. Nadira snapped her head to turn at Jen.

[Jen: "I guess it was safer to ask why she had wanted to be evil."]  
[Kendall: "I don't get it. I would figure Nadira would be so willing to open up with us, but she seemed like she didn't want to. In fact, she was more open with Lucas than anyone."]

"Excuse me," Nadira suddenly got up and left Jen and Kendall. As soon as she was out of hearing distance, Kendall turned to Jen. "That was weird, huh?"

"What was weird?"

"Nadira. I thought she'd want to talk with us about. . .stuff, but she just shut us out."

Jen shrugged. "Well, I don't know Nadira that well, so I guess that must be it."

"But she seems to open up to Lucas."

Jen turned to Kendall. "Yeah?" She paused for a moment and then said, "You don't think she. . .nah."

"She what?"

Jen slowly smiled and then burst out laughing. "It's too funny. . ." Kendall smiled curiously. "Come on Jen, spill it. . ." Jen shook her head and slowly stopped laughing. "Well, you don't think that Nadira might. . ._like_ Lucas, do you?"

Kendall still had the smile on her face. "What would be wrong with that?"

[Jen: "Kendall wasn't with us when Nadira thought that Lucas was in love with her. They even went out on a date. Lucas didn't like her, so we had to find a way to get Nadira off Lucas' back, which we did."]

Jen just shook her head. "Nevermind," she said, waving her hand. Then Wes and Lucas ran up to the girls. "Come on, guys, you can't sit around waiting to fry in the sun. Why not come play on the beach? That's what we're here for," Wes said, extending his hand to Jen. Jen laughed and took his hand, pulling herself up. "And what do you have in mind?" Jen asked coyly.

Wes put his hand on Jen's forehead. "I think you're burning up," he said. Jen frowned. "I am?" she asked.

Wes nodded. "Yep. So I think. . ." Suddenly, he scooped Jen up onto his shoulders. ". . .We have to cool you off in the water!" Jen screamed as he ran off. "Hey! Wes! Wes. . .let go of me! I mean it!" Jen yelled. "Wes--" her yells were suddenly hushed as she was thrown into the water.

[Lucas: "Gosh, they never stop." He rolls his eyes. "Read a book or something."]

Lucas rolled his eyes as the others turned to look at the commotion. "Wes, I am sooo going to kill you," Jen vowed and she jumped out of the water and chased a grinning Wes around the shoreline. Lucas turned to look back at Kendall. "Are you up for some volleyball? Now that Wes is gone, we need another person," he said.

Kendall nodded. "Sounds like fun," she agreed. They walked towards the group at the volleyball net.

"Hey, what about me?"

Kendall and Lucas turned to look at Nadira, who was rushing towards them, waving her arms frantically.

[Lucas: "Oh no. Someone, please hide me."]  
[Kendall: Laughs. "I think Jen's theory about Nadira and Lucas is right. It was so cute!"]

Lucas rolled his eyes--again. "Nadira, we only need one more person to play. You'll be the odd man. . .er, person."

[Nadira: "I don't know why he never involves me in anything. . .we're supposed to be partners!"]

Kendall turned to Lucas and smiled. "It's okay, she can take my place. I'll just head down to the water with the others," she said. Lucas looked at Kendall pleadingly. "No! I mean, come on, you've gotta play." He turned to Nadira and then back to Kendall. "Come on, please."

[Kendall: "He was practically begging me to play the game so Nadira couldn't play. I didn't know what to do! So I thought about what I would do if I was Jen."]

Kendall smiled. "No, it's all right!" she turned to Nadira, who was looking at her with hopeful eyes. "Why don't you step in for me, Nadira?" she suggested. Nadira squealed happily and threw her arms around Kendall. "Thank you so much!" she said, grinning at Kendall. Then Nadira stepped forward and put her arm on Lucas', who shrugged it off. "Great! We're going to be on the same team!"

*************At the water's edge****************

[Alyssa: "What was supposed to be a fun outing turned slightly competitive."]

Alyssa winced slightly when a ball of wet sand hit her leg. She smiled and threw the sandball she had in her hand and hit Cole in the head. She covered her mouth when Cole feigned injury and fell into the water. "Sorry Cole!" she said, laughing.

Cole came up from the shallow water, grinning. He turned to the circle of people around him, which were Carter, Dana, Maya, Trip, Tanya, and Adam. "That's it--It's time for a sandball fight!" he yelled out. Trip grinned and reached down into the water, but before he could pack a sandball together, Maya had already hit him with a sandball. Sand flew everywhere, but everyone was laughing and having a great time.

"Guys ready?"

Alyssa stopped her attack on Tanya and looked to the voice. She saw Mike standing in knee high water, with Taylor and Cassie about five feet away from him, in deeper waters. Cole noticed that Alyssa was no longer participating in the sandball fight, and he turned to look at what she was watching. Carter also stopped, as so did the others. "What's going on?" Carter asked.

"On your marks. . .get set. . .go!" Mike yelled and Taylor and Cassie immediately started swimming.

[Taylor: "Cassie challenged me to a swim race."]  
[Cassie: "I had to see if this girl was as tough as she thought she was."]

Dana's eyes widened. "They're racing!"

[Alyssa: "And I thought, oh no. . .they're racing."]

Alyssa bit her lip as she watched the race. "Hey, I think Taylor's winning," Tanya said

Cassie and Taylor were quickly approaching the group, but Taylor was in the lead. About twenty seconds later, they had reached the group. Everyone quickly surrounded them. "Hey you guys, good race!" Trip said, smiling. Both girls were breathing heavily as they turned to each other. Taylor extended her hand. "It was a good race," she said.

Cassie looked down at Taylor's hand and then back up at Taylor. Then she spun around and stalked out of the water. 

[Adam: "Cassie's competitiveness is hurting her. A little competition is good--but I think she might be getting in way over her head."]

Adam watched his partner walk onto the beach, heading for the showers. Then he turned to look at Taylor, who had a confused expression on her face. Tanya put her hand on Adam's shoulder. "Think she'll be okay?" Tanya asked. Adam shook his head and didn't reply.

******************************

Joel took a bite out of his pasta and closed his eyes. "Mmm, this is good," he said, and then opened his eyes and took another bite. Again, he closed his eyes and then he smiled. When he opened his eyes, he leaned towards his wife and asked, "Are you going to eat all of that?"

Angela shook her head. "No. . .have all of it," she said, pushing her half-full plate of pasta towards him. Joel gave her a grateful look and nodded, digging into the pasta.

Danny approached their table. "Hey guys, mind if I sit with you?" he asked. Angela shook her head and guestured towards one of the five empty seats. "Go right ahead."

Danny nodded, taking a seat at the table. Then his eyes lit up as Kendall walked towards them. He got up immediately. "Kendall, why don't you sit with us?" he asked.

Kendall shook her head. "Maybe next time," she said, and walked over to sit at another table with Dana, Carter, Cole, Alyssa, Trini, and Damon. Danny watched her take a seat and then turned and took a seat in his chair.

[Angela: "I felt so sorry for Danny. He seems genuinely interested in Kendall. . .but they have major differences."]

Joel clapped his hand on Danny's shoulder. "You gotta know how to handle them."

"Handle what?"

"Women!" Joel gave Danny an incredulous look. He grinned. "I've got all the answers." Angela started coughing, but Joel seemed to ignore her. "Come on, I know you've got some questions. . .fire away!"

Danny shrugged helplessly. "What do I do? You know, with me and Kendall. . .I think she might want to talk with me, but she always turns away."

"You just have to keep on trying harder, my man," Joel said. "I can tell she wants you. . .she's just afraid! So just keep on talking to her. Be persistant, bug her. . .in the end, she'll come to you."

"Really?"

Joel nodded enthusiastically as he took a bite out of some more pasta. When he swallowed, he said, "Yeah! I mean, Angela and I got together." He turned to her. "Right?"

Angela nodded and smiled sweetly. "And tell Danny how long it took for us to get together," she said.

Danny turned from Angela to Joel. "How long?" he asked.

Joel gave a sheepish smile. "Uh. . .about two years," he said. When Danny's hopeful expression dropped, Joel quickly added, "But we would've gotten together sooner if there wasn't any of that ranger business." He turned to Angela again. "Right, honey?" 

Angela rolled her eyes, but she smiled at him and gave him a pinch on the cheek. 

"Well, I've known Kendall for over two years. . .so, maybe in a little while?" Danny asked.

Joel nodded. "Just keep at it, and I guarentee you'll get her," he said confidentally. Angela shook her head. "Danny, if you really want to talk to Kendall, approach her seriously. Tell her that you guys have a lot to talk about and work through it. Bugging her's not the right answer in your case." Danny looked at her for a moment and then nodded. 

Just then, Joel's morpher rang out, as did some other morphers in the room. "Joel here," he said, answering the call.

"Joel? It's T.J." Joel's eyes widened and Angela and Danny leaned in closer to hear the message. "Let the others on your table know that there's going to be a mission right after breakfast tomorrow, so get a some good rest tonight and a good breakfast tomorrow," T.J. said.

"What's the mission going to be?" Joel asked.

"Sorry man, can't tell you that one. The info I've given you is what I'm supposed to say. Remember, after breakfast, meet down in the lobby."

*************At another table**************

Ashley turned to Kat, whose morpher rang out. "What do you think the mission's going to be tomorrow?" she asked.

Kat shook her head. "Sounds kind of . . .physical. We're told to get lots of rest."

[Ashley: "I guess I'm still thinking of the last mission we had. I do _not_ what to go through that again."]  
[Leo: "Remind me to never get on Ashley's bad side."]

***************The next morning, at the lobby****************

T.J. grinned as he and Kai walked towards the group. "Hope everyone had some rest last night," T.J. commented as he walked towards the group. "If everyone's here, we can head down to the course."

[Karone: "Course?"]  
[Rocky: "Again?"]  
[Kim: "They have got to be kidding us. Another obstacle course?"]

"It can't be another obstacle course," Kim said, walking with Jason as everyone headed towards the "course". "I mean, we've already done that. They really want to kill us with this, don't they?"

"I guess they were serious about the 'Extreme Challenge' part, huh?" Jason said, grinning. Kim reached out to give him a slap on the arm, but Jason moved away before she could actually hit him. 

About a few feet away from them were Maya, Katie, and Damon. "Not another obstacle course," Damon complained. He turned to Katie. "Think you can carry me through this one?" 

Maya slapped Damon on the arm while Katie laughed. "I can try. . .but I can't guarentee you'll get out in one piece," Katie joked. 

Leo, Kendrix, Lucas, and Trini were walking right behind them. Kendrix saw that Leo's attention was somewhere else. "What are you looking at?" Kendrix asked.

[Leo: "Mike and Taylor are definitely getting closer after each day."]

Leo pointed to his brother and Taylor, who were talking and laughing. Kendrix smiled. "You think they'll get together?" Kendrix asked. Leo shrugged. "I asked Mike about that last night. . .he didn't want to tell me anything."

[Kendrix: "Taylor and Mike _did_ look like they were getting close. Who knows, maybe they'll hook up."]

"They can't be repeating a mission," Taylor reasoned. "It's gotta be another course."

"But what kind of course?" Mike asked. Taylor shrugged. "Who knows--but we'll get through it, right?"

[Director's voice: "What is up with you and her?"]  
[Mike: "Who?"]  
[Director's voice: "You know who. . .you and Taylor."]  
[Mike: "Oh!" He shrugs and smiles. "Nothing's going on. We're just good friends--really good friends."]  
[Director's voice: "Come on, there's nothing more than that? You've been hanging out together every time."]  
[Mike: Gives the camera a Look. "So do Rocky and Adam. They're not a couple, aren't they?"]

"Right," Mike agrees, and he and Taylor lock hands for a moment.

[Director's voice: "Everyone wants to know--are you and Mike and item?"]  
[Taylor: "An item? As in couple? We're just partners. . .friends. This unity is what keeps us in this competition.]

Their hands pull apart as the group slows down. "This is it," Kai said, halting the group. Everyone looked at what was in front of them. It was just like the enclosed area in their first mission.

"I guess it is an obstacle course," a whisper broke through the silence.

"Your next mission is another obstacle course," Kai said. When everyone groaned, Kai grinned. "Just kidding! This next mission is going to be a fun one--it's a rescue mission."

"That's right," T.J. confirmed. "Each pair will enter this door," he guestured towards the door in the center of the wall, "with the right gear for the mission and rescue hostages in the area. There are enemies in this compound, shooting at you, so be careful."

"Your gear will consist of a small rifle, a combat helmet, and three devices put onto your helmet, your rifle, and your vest. These devices will indicate if you've been killed or you're getting fired at. A flat-line beep means that you've been killed, and a couple of short beeps indicate you're being shot at," Kai continued.

[Leo: "Whoa."]  
[Jason: "Sounds like fun. I've never done that kind of thing before."]

"You get five points for every hostage that you rescue and bring to the safety zone. This is a timed event--if both you and your partner are still alive by the end of the ten minutes, you'll receive ten points. If you or your partner is dead, you'll only receive the points for how many hostages were saved," T.J. concluded. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the group. "No? Okay, we'll have Angela and Joel go first."

[Angela: "Great, they made us go first."]

Joel gave the camera a thumbs-up sign as the gear he was supposed to wear was being put on him. He turned to Angela. "Don't worry, we'll get through this," he said, holding her hand. Angela nodded and looked at the rifle slung on her arm.

"Ready guys?" T.J. asked. He held the stopwatch in his hand and then clicked it and Joel and Angela took off running through the door.

"This sounds hard," Trini said to Jason, as they stood at the enterance. They were being suited up to go in next. 

[Trini: "The last time I fired a weapon as the Power Blaster, and that's been ages ago. I hope I still have good aim."]

"Are you up for this?" Alyssa asked Cole.

[Alyssa: "Cole's not too big in violence--if possible, he'd rather stay away from it."

Cole turned to Alyssa. "We're rescuing hostages, right?" he asked.

"Well, not real ones, but it's a simulation."

"Then we're helping someone," Cole said, nodding. "I'm up for it."

********************

"Trini, get down!" Jason yelled and rushed to his partner. The sound of gunshot was all around them. He and Trini dived to the ground. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

"We've got one hostage to the safety zone," Jason replied as he looked around. He looked at his watch. "And it's almost over."

[Jason: "With only one hostage, we've got only five points. We'll probably get bumped off the top three."]

A loud beep sounded the area and Jason and Trini got up. They walked to the exit, where Angela and Joel were waiting. "How'd you guys do?" Joel asked.

"We only got one hostage," Jason replied as a crew of people helped get the gear of him and Trini.

********************

[Kim: "The combat mission was tough."]

"Tommy! Over there!" Kim yelled and pointed to a small shack.

[Tommy: "That wall was hiding a whole area of small shacks."]

"Okay, let's go!" Tommy said and he and Kim headed towards the shack Kim had pointed to. Tommy counted to three and kicked the door open. He entered first, his rifle drawn. When he moved more into the shack, Kim followed behind. She sweeped the area with her eyes. "There!" she said, pointing to a dummy lying on a seat. She was about to approach when Tommy stopped her. "Hold on," he said, and looked around for a moment. His eyes widened and he spun around suddenly. Kim screamed as he shot his weapon outside. 

"What was that?" Kim asked frantically as she gripped her weapon.

A black-outfitted man was laying outside the door, a flat-line beep sounding from his devices. "Let's grab the hostage and go," Tommy said and Kim nodded. Together, they lifted the dummy and Tommy carried it. As they ran outside, gunshots were heard all around them. Kim screamed.

[Kim: "That was so scary. The whole time we were running, I could hear either mine or Tommy's device beeping."]

Just as they reached the safety zone, the horn blared, signaling the end of the competition. Kim was breathing heavily as she leaned over to put her hands on her knees. Tommy, breathing just as heavily, dropped the dummy on the ground. "Thought we were goners out there," he said. Kim leaned forward and gave him a hug. "Auugh, so did I," she said.

**********************

[Ashley: "Like the first mission, Mike and Taylor were the last to go."]

The horn's blare rang out and couple of minutes later, Mike and Taylor walked out of the ghost town. "How'd you guys do?" Leo asked them, coming forward.

"We rescued about four of them," Taylor replied, still trying to catch her breath. Leo grinned at them. "All right!" he said, shaking their hands.

T.J. and Kai came up behind them, through the ghost town. "All right, great job you guys, well done!" Everyone applauded and Kai spoke up. "We'll need an hour to get the results, so just kick back and relax. You guys deserve it. We'll call you on your communicators or morphers when we receive word of who won."

"It's not fair," Cassie muttered as she and Adam walked away from the mission they just had. "They're soldiers--they know this kinda of stuff."

[Cassie: "Adam and I. . .only got two hostages in the mission, and I was shot down. With this, we can't make the top three yet."]

***********************

"I wonder who made the top three," Adam said, as he and Tanya walked hand-in-hand to the lobby. They had just gotten word that the results had come out.

[Adam: "Cassie really wants to be in the top three and she wants to win the money. I'm just afraid that if she gets too comeptitive, people are going to get hurt."]

"Are you worried about Cassie?" Tanya asked. Adam nodded. "I like her spirit, and I've known Cassie for awhile, but she's getting way to competitive about this whole thing. . ."

[Tanya: "Adam's a pacifist. I know he'll do all his best to win, but he's uncertain about Cassie's intentions."]

Tanya squeezed Adam's hand. "Don't worry, it'll be okay," she assured him as took a seat in the lobby.

As soon as everyone was accounted for, T.J. spoke up. "Okay, the top three groups have been revealed." He pulled down a blanket, which covered the scoreboard. 

[Karone: "The top three pairs in Group 2 have been changed somewhat since the last mission."]

"The leader of the mission again, goes to Mike and Taylor!" Kai announced. Everyone burst into applause and T.J. approached Mike and Taylor. "Courtesy of Roxy Quicksilver, you both each receive a check for $1,000," Kai said handing them both the checks.

[Rocky: "Whoa, mama."]  
[Kendrix: "A thousand dollars?"]  
[Katie: "Mike lives in space. . .he should give me the check to spend now."]

Taylor and Mike looked at each other and smiled. Kai walked back up on stage. "Okay, group one's top three are in order: Tommy and Kim, Carter and Jen, and Leo and Dana."

"Group two, these are your leaders," T.J. said and he pointed to the board. "Mike and Taylor, Wes and Kendrix, and Cole and Alyssa."

"You have an hour of deliberation," Kai announced. He looked at his watch. "Starting . . now."

**********Group 1's top three*************

"Still want to go with the weakest link?" Kim asked the group.

[Leo: "I'm very tempted to go with the strongest pairing, which is Angela and Joel. They're in fourth position right now, right behind Dana and I."]

Tommy nodded. "I honestly think that they're going to throw us a curve ball. . .for some reason, we're going to end up needing the strongest people."

Carter also nodded. "These people are smart. . .they're thinking we're going to vote off the strongest threats. If we take out the weakest link, that'll be Maya and Zack."

[Kim: "I hated to see Zack go. I mean, I hadn't seen him in forever, and we didn't get to talk that much while we were here too."]

Kim nodded, so did everyone else.

[Kim: "But I'll follow everyone else."]

*********Group 2's Top Three**********

[Wes: "We've got some pretty good teams in group two, so it's a hard decision to make."]

"All of the teams are pretty good," Alyssa said, twirling the straw in her cup. "Who should we vote off?"

[Mike: "Last time, we voted off Chad and Kelsey because they were the weaker pair. I don't know if we should do that again."]

"Should we go with another weaker team?" Mike asked. He looked around the group. When no one made a move to reply, he said, "All right, we'll go with another weaker team. I'll go with Tanya and Trip."

Taylor looked at him and nodded. "Then I'll vote with you." She looked around.

"I'd like to vote Cassie and Adam," Alyssa replied. 

"Why?" Cole asked.

[Alyssa: "There's something about Cassie. . .something that's going on inside. I think it might be threatening to us."]

Alyssa shrugged and shook her head. "I just. . .have this feeling."

Wes shook his head. "I'd hate to go with my buddy, but I'm going to vote Tanya and Trip." Kendrix nodded along with him. Alyssa turned to Cole and he nodded also. When Alyssa shrugged, Mike nodded. "Okay, our votes are made."

**************************

"Group one, please come up and share your vote with us," T.J. said an hour later. The group bounded up on stage and Carter spoke for everyone. "We had a tough decision. . .since all pairs in our group are really good, but we decided to go with the lowest team, which is Maya and Zack."

[Zack: "Aww, man."]

Zack nodded from his chair and reached across the table to give Maya a handshake. "We're sorry, guys," Carter said, looking guilty.

Maya smiled. "Don't worry about it," she replied.

Kai nodded. "All right, group one, thank you for that," he said and group one left the stage. "Okay, group two?" The top three teams in group two went onto the stage. Wes spoke for them. "Just like group one, group two also had some strong teams and we also decided to go with the lowest scoring team, which is Tanya and Trip."

[Adam: "They voted off Tanya and Trip."]  
[Cassie: "Maybe Adam's angry enough to want to be more competitive."]

"We enjoyed your company. . .and we hope there are no hard feelings," Wes said. Just like Maya, Tanya was also smiling. "Don't worry about it. But I hope the team that wins will share some of that money!" Tanya called out. Everyone laughed at her remark, and Wes smiled. 

"Whew, tough decisions," T.J. said. "You guys all did great on the mission, though, so be proud of that. Okay, you guys have the rest of the day off. Go around Oahu, the beach, the sites, and those of you who were voted off, you'll have to be packed and ready to leave after dinner."

**********************

[Alyssa: "I knew there was a reason why I felt Cassie was very threatening. I overheard Cassie talking with Ashley and Rocky about how in order for them to make the top three, they needed to split Mike and Taylor."]

Alyssa walked out from the large bathroom that Group one's villa shared with Group two's. When she walked into the living room, she saw Cassie discussing something with Ashley and Rocky. 

[Alyssa: "They were talking kinda hushed, so I thought it was none of my business. Then I heard what Cassie was saying."]

"So in order for us to win, we've gotta try and get Mike and Taylor to turn on each other, so they won't work as well as a team. Right now, they're almost untouchable. Almost," Cassie said, looking back and forth between Ashley and Rocky.

[Alyssa: "And I was right there!"]

Alyssa frowned as she approached the three. "You can't be planning that kind of thing," Alyssa interjected.

Cassie turned to look at Alyssa. "You were listening?" she demanded, but Alyssa ignored her comment. "Hey, just let the game play out! If you want to go after Mike and Taylor by splitting them up, do it by yourself. Don't bring in other people and start some kind of a mutiny!" Alyssa said, clenching her fists. 

Ashley opened her mouth to speak but Cassie got up quickly and faced Alyssa. "If you can tell me that being competitive's against the rules for the competition, then I'll stop. But if you can't say anything, back off."

[Rocky: "I swear, it was almost like the battle of the rangers." Looks excited. "Let the battle begin!"]

"Are you threatening me?" Alyssa asked, narrowing her eyes. Cassie was about to reply when Adam and Tanya approached. "Whoa, back off, Cassie," Adam said, pulling back his partner. "Relax." When Cassie conceded, Adam turned to Alyssa. "This is not the time to fight," he said. 

Alyssa looked at Adam and nodded. "We'll just settle this on the challenge," she said. When Cassie turned away, Alyssa turned around and walked to her room.

[Ashley: "I couldn't let Alyssa think badly of Cassie."]

A knock sounded on Alyssa's door. "Come in," Alyssa said as she took a seat on her bed. Ashley walked in. "Hey, Alyssa."

Alyssa nodded. "What are you doing here?" she asked, curious.

Ashley smiled slightly. "I know what you're thinking--that Cassie's a bad person." When Alyssa didn't respond, Ashley pushed forward. "But she's not. I've known Cassie for a long time. She does get competitive, but she's not how you think she is. She needs this money."

"We all do," Alyssa pointed out. Ashley nodded. "Yeah, I know, but Cassie's doing all she believes she can to win. It might not be the right way to do it, but I guess she feels it's the more certain way to get things done."

Alyssa sighed. "She must be a great person if you came to talk to me about her." Ashley nodded. "She's my best friend. Just. . .talk things out with her. Maybe you'll make her come to her senses." Ashley shrugged.

"We'll see," Alyssa said. "If she keeps on going this way, people are going to get hurt."

*****************Next time on Power Rangers Extreme Challenge***************

_An overview of the past four episodes--in the hosts' point of view._

[Scenes:]  
-"Nice one, Kai," T.J. said, after Kai fell off the four-wheeler  
-Kai turned to T.J. "Bet you can't handle that," he said, pointing to the obstacle course.

_Along with some cut scenes:_

-"Come on, can't you tell us what's the next mission before it happens?" Leo asked Kai.  
-Kim and Kat quietly discussing something, away from the group

_And also, host narratives:_

-[Kai: "Yep, T.J. and I have the star treatment--a whole villa to ourselves. But it's so quiet, we're not here that often."]  
-[T.J.: "A lot of things going on here. . .love triangles, arguments. . .it really is a tv show."

Author's Notes: Yep, I will put the new scoreboard on episode six because episode five will be the POV from Kai and T.J.'s view. Thought that it would be interesting to see what they see, since they're the hosts and everything. Rooming assignment will also appear on episode six.   
I know, I left the story off where the other preview left off. That was planned. This "animosity" will be around for awhile--I think.  
Hmm. . .not much else. The story's coming along like I planned. As always, please read and review. 


	6. Episode 5: Host POV

Author's notes: Sorry couldn't post for awhile, guys. I hadn't had the time to finish the fic, and then I had to try and keep up with updating both pages. Now that the hard part's over for the pages, I can finish up this episode. Yay!   
I wrote this episode, mostly because we never get to see what Kai and T.J. think about what's going on--and I love both of them =) It's a really short chapter--and I apologize if it's a sucky chapter. I wanted to give a different perspective of the show. Another narrative fic will come after the ninth episode. And remember to R&R--and if you do, please leave your e-mail address so I can contact you, if needed.  
Oh! And also, I added a messageboard to my website. You can visit it at http://pub30.ezboard.com/bwritteninthestarsofficialforum If you ever have to reach me about the fics I have here, or if you just want to discuss couples on my site or general PR, just visit. 

Power Rangers Extreme Challenge  
Episode 5: Host POV  
By: stargazer_1017

[TJ: "I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But I figured as long as I got to see the action right where it was, it was going to be okay."]  
[Kai: "We arrived on earth in a different way from the other rangers. We used our Jet Jammers."]

"Sure we can park that thing here," Damon asked after he had demorphed and got out of his green Jet Jammer.

Kendrix looked around. "Are you sure we can leave it here? I mean, who gave us the authority?" she asked, turning to Kai. "It's Mr. Christian McGee," Kai replied. "He said his crew would take care of it."

"How do you know so much about this guy? The only word we got was when Karone received word from Andros about this competition. After that, you were the one relaying us the info," Leo inquired.

[Kai: "No one was supposed to know that I got chosen as a host for the show. I don't see why though, because it's not like I knew any of the things they were going to do. I usually got word that morning."]

Kai gave a slight smile. "Just lucky, I guess," he said non-commitally.

********************

Kai looked around the stage area and then faced right into the camera--and stared at it for a long time. "Excuse me, sir, you're not supposed to look into the camera," a muffled voice behind the camera said.

Kai frowned. "But I thought I could do some narratives facing the camera."

"Well, you're not actually saying something. . ." 

Kai opened his mouth to respond when someone patted him on the shoulder. "Hey Kai." Kai turned around into the grinning face of his old friend, T.J. "T.J.? You mean, you're a host too?" T.J. nodded. "Yeah. I didn't get chosen to be in the game, but the producer or something, Christian McGee, told me that I could try out to be one of the hosts instead."

[Kai: "It was really a surprise to see T.J. there, as a host. I think he would have been great as a competitor." He pauses. "But then again, so would I."]

******The Host Villa**********

"Holy crap," Kai whispered as he and T.J. walked inside their own villa. "You mean this. . .this is ours?" he asked, walking around, taking in the view and the space in the villa.

[Kai: "Yep, T.J. and I have the star treatment--a whole villa to ourselves.]

T.J. was grinning as he plopped down on the large couch and grabbed the remote control. "Man, this is great!" he said. He turned on the tv and searched the channels for something to watch. Kai went to stand next to the couch and watch the tv. Then all of sudden shrieking and laughing was heard. Kai and T.J. turned to each other.

"They've gotta share that villa with a lot of people, and we've got this all to ourselves. What more could we ask for?" T.J. asked Kai. Kai shrugged. "You're right. This is better than what they have."

There was still excited yelling next door.

T.J. and Kai looked at each other again. They both headed for the door quickly.

[Kai: "But it's so quiet, we're not here that often."]

"Hey guys, what's going on?" T.J. yelled to the group of present rangers and former rangers as he and Kai entered the villa of group 2.

Ashley grinned at the two of them walking in. "It was just really great to see Kendrix again." She had her arm around the blonde-haired woman, who was also grinning.

[T.J.: "I was just as surprised as Ashley to see Kendrix in the dining hall tonight. She had died when she destroyed the Savage Sword. Not until Terra Venture landed at Mirinoi that we found out that Kendrix had returned, but I guess we had to see her in the flesh to make sure."]

*************************

[T.J.: "We've just been notified that there'll be a mission coming up tomorrow."]

"Everyone, be dressed in workout gear because it'll be a jungle out there," T.J. warned the group, as everyone was seated in the dining area. 

"What's the mission?" Leo called out suddenly.

"Leo, you know we can't tell you that," Kai groaned. 

[Kai: "Leo wanted to know what mission they were going to be doing the next day. It's not like I knew anything! Besides, I wouldn't tell anyone anyway."]

"You sure you can't give us even a little hint at what we're doing?" Cassie asked after T.J. had sat down at the table she was at. T.J. gave her a grin. "How much are you willing to pay me for it?" T.J. asked. Cassie rolled her eyes and gave him a friendly slap on the arm. "Teej. . ."

T.J. shrugged shook his head. "To be honest? Even we're not told what your mission will be. I'll probably find out tomorrow morning," he replied.

"Why? Is it because they might not trust you or anything?" Aisha asked. She was also sitting at the table. T.J. shrugged again.

At a table not too far away, Leo was still trying to bug information out of Kai. "Leo, I told you, I don't know anything," Kai said, scooping up some of the soup he had in front of him with a spoon. 

Kendrix whacked Leo on the arm. "Leo, come on, stop bugging Kai."

"Come on, Kendrix, I bet you're dying to know what mission we're going on tomorrow," Leo said. Kendrix shrugged. "Nope, I have confidence in me and my team," Kendrix replied. When Leo gave her a glare, Kendrix laughed. After awhile, Leo started laughing too.

[Kai: "Those two, always flirting."]

*********The next day************

"Where are they?" Joel complained, squinting against the sun.

[T.J.: "Then Kai and I made our grand enterances." He started to crack up.]  
[Kai: "I will never ride a four-wheeler again."]  
[T.J.: Still laughing.]

"Whoa!" Adam yelled out as Kai narrowly missed running him over. T.J. chuckled and stopped his vehicle. Then he went over and helped Kai stop his. Kai narrowed his eyes as he got off. "Anyone says anything about this, and I'll kill you," he warned.

"Hey! Remember, the kids are watching!" Damon yelled out. Kai looked over the group of people and located his friend. Then he turned to look at the camera and forced a smile on his face. "I'm just kidding," he said lamely.

[Kai: "After seeing the obstacle course and seeing everyone go through it, I was glad that I wasn't participating. As a soldier onboard the Terra Venture, you had to stay in shape--but I wasn't in that great of shape."]

"Hey, I bet you can't handle that," T.J. said as Aisha and Carlos started running through the course. Kai laughed. "Of course I can. I'm in the best shape in my life."

[Kai: "Yeah right."]

"Oh really? Why don't we run through that course and put a bet on it?" T.J. challenged.

[T.J.: "Kai was afraid--he really was."]  
[Kai: "I wasn't afraid, but I didn't want to lose."]

"No thanks, I don't bet," Kai replied.

"Well, if you're as good as you say you are, then it's no gamble isn't it?" T.J. said. Kai stood quiet for a moment and then said, "How about another mission? I'll challenge you to another mission, just not this one."

"Why not this one."

"Because."

"Because. . ."

"Just--trust me on this one, okay?"

[T.J.: "He was really chicken about the whole thing."]

********************

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be at your own villa?" 

T.J. looked up at the voice and grinned. "Hey man, it's good to see you." He got up and gave his old friend, Tommy, a hug. Tommy hugged him back and said, "Good to see you too. So how's it been?"

T.J. nodded. "Been pretty good. I could use the money from the competition, but I guess I'll have to settle for some salary pay from the producers," he joked. Tommy laughed. "Hey," he said suddenly, "have you seen Kim?"

"Kim?"

"Yeah, she stopped by my room earlier, but I was busy talking with Kat and she walked away."

T.J. shook his head. "No, I haven't seen her yet."

[T.J.: "There's also that little thing between Tommy, Kat, and Kim. I heard that Kim and Tommy used to be a couple. It's very interesting how things work out."]

"Nice to see you again, Kim," Kat said. Kim was standing out on the patio, looking towards the water. She turned around at Kat's voice. Kim smiled at her friend. "Kat, it's nice to see you too. How have you been?"

Kat nodded. "Good. . .I've been okay."

Inside the villa, Trini, Jason, Max, and Kendall gathered around the window. "What's going on?" Max asked.

"Ooh, catfight?" Jason remarked. Trini shook her head. "I think they know better than that," she said confidently.

"What's going on?" Kendall asked the three. Trini still kept her eyes peeled to the window, watching Kat and Kim gesturing while they talked. "Well, Kat's boyfriend, Tommy, used to be Kim's. I guess Kat's kind of insecure about Kim being Tommy's partner." Kendall nodded at the comment.

"Is there something you wanted to talk about, Kat?" Kim inquired softly. Kat looked at Kim and opened her mouth to say something--then she closed it and shook her head. "No. I was just. . .you know, wondering how you were doing." 

Kim looked doubtful, but she nodded anyway. "I'm great, Kat. Thanks for asking."

[Kai: "You think there's dramtics with Kim, Kat, and Tommy? Cassie's starting her own dramtics."]

"I really want to win this," Cassie said quietly. She and Adam were discussing strategy that night, after the voting had been over.

Adam seemed slightly hesitant. "How badly? I mean, what are you willing to do?" he asked.

[T.J.: "Cassie. . .really wants to win. I mean, we were rangers and our identity was revealed. . .and we never expect anything from this, but Cassie had to work really hard to make her way in life. It's been about almost five years since our last 'Ranger' mission, and she's been going to school and everything--just make something of herself in the post-ranger life."]

"I'm willing to do anything," Cassie replied, no hesitation or no fear in her voice.

****************

"Please, stop looking at the camera."

Kai frowned. "What? I was going to make a narrative."

". . .Fine, go ahead."

[Kai: "I'm still having problems making narratives outside of this little booth that you have set up. And your cameraman? He sucks."]  
[Producer: "He sucks?"]  
[Kai: "Yes! Get him out of here, please!"]

"Can you see that?" T.J. said, pointing outside the door, towards the bushes. The camera zoomed in to see Taylor and Mike walking in, laughing, each with a drink in hand. The camera moved back to T.J. and Kai, who had just joined him.

"What are you guys looking at?" Kai asked. T.J. pointed outside and Kai watched as Taylor and Mike walked towards Group 2's villa. 

[Kai: "It's. . .different seeing Mike with someone. I mean, I'm not saying the guy should stay a bachelor for the rest of his life, but seeing someone who commands you, and then seeing him with a girl is just. . .different."]  
[T.J.: "Taylor and Mike don't make such a bad couple. They're pretty similar in style and honestly--they look good together. Another 'couple' to look out for."]

Just then, Lucas, Katie, and Trip wandered by the villa. "Hey guys, do us a favor, will you?" Lucas asked suddenly.

"What is it?" Kai asked.

"If Jen or Wes ask, tell them we've been with you guys the whole night, okay?" Katie said, her attention partly divided as she searched around for something or someone.

"Why?" T.J. asked. "Did you guys do something?"

"No!" All three replied at the same time. "We just. . .went out, but they're not supposed to know," Trip said.

[T.J.: "Are Lucas, Trip, and Katie still spying on Wes and Jen?" Suddenly, Trip popped up behind T.J. "Hey, I heard my name." Trip said, looking at the camera, and then looking at T.J. T.J. laughed and rolled his eyes. Gesturing towards Trip, he said, "Trip was the last one voted off, along with his partner, Tanya. But he's still here--he's just waiting for the others, so they can all go home together." Trip looked at the camera again. "Hey, can I still make narratives?" he asked. T.J. shrugged and turned to the producer, who was behind the camera.]  
[Producer: "No."]  
[Trip: Still by T.J.'s side. "Why not? I'm still here."]

****************

[T.J.: "Who do I think will win?" He put's his finger on his chin. "That's a hard one. I mean, it's still early in the game. Anyone can still be voted off."]  
[Kai: "I think a strong team right now, as you all know, is probably Mike and Taylor.]

"Come on, Mike! Let's do it!" Taylor yelled as they went across the rope bridge in the first mission.

[Kai: "They obviously communicate well."]

"I don't think that one has a hostage inside!" Mike yelled to Taylor, as they cautiously walked the grounds of the rescue mission. He was pointing at a small storage room.

"What makes you so sure?" Taylor asked. "Just the structure of the building--it's too clean," Mike replied. Taylor nodded and followed his lead to the next storage.

[Kai: "Then there's that side action that they're getting."]

"Hey, are you and Mike going out or what?" Leo asked. He was seated at a table with Kai and Taylor. Taylor narrowed her eyes slightly, but she seemed amused. "Why? Is there a rumor going around?" Taylor asked, taking a sip of her iced tea. 

"No," Kai replied, "but we've seen you going around with him and stuff."

Taylor smiled but said nothing. Suddenly, Mike came up behind her and asked, "Hey, mind if I join you?" Taylor turned and grinned at him. "Of course," she said. Mike pulled up a chair next to her and sat down, placing the plate of food he had on the table.

[Kai: "There's obviously some attraction between the two. I wouldn't be surprised if they hooked up."]  
[T.J.: "I think that Tommy and Kim have a very huge chance of winning this thing. That is, if they can keep their minds on the game."]

"Hey, have any of you seen Tommy?" Kat asked, walked up to T.J., Ashley, and Andros, who were laying on the beach. 

"I think he was around here, but I don't know where he went," Ashley replied.

Kat turned to look at the group who was playing volleyball on the sand. Suddenly, she walked off. T.J. turned to look at the group, and saw what had made Kat upset--Kim and Tommy were playing volleyball on the same team.

[T.J.: "I had never expected Kat to be so insecure. I mean, we all know about the Kim and Tommy relationship, but it's in the past, right? Kat doesn't have to be so uncertain. If she keeps it up, it'll hurt her friendship with Kim, and maybe even her relatinoship with Tommy. She's got to be careful."]

*************Next time on Power Rangers Extreme Challenge*************

Alyssa had the phone to her ear, with Taylor beside her. "What's going on?" Taylor asked. Alyssa still had the phone on her ear. "My father--he's been in an accident," she whispered.

[Alyssa: "Now I have to make the decision--leave the competition and see my father, or stay here and do the best I can and hopefully win this."]

[Karone: "Kat seems very irrtated lately."]

Kat got up from the table and muttered, "I can't take this." Angela and Dana frowned as they watched her walk away. "What's going on?" Angela asked. Dana shook her head, not responding.

"Your next mission is a climb up the mountain," T.J. announced as the group gathered at the bottom of the short mountainside. 

[Zack: "This may be a problem for Trini and Jason."]  
[Jason: "Trini has a fear of heights. She's conquered it a few times, but other times she'd been lucky not to have to go through any harsh ones."]

Trini looked up the mountainside, where there was a rope hanging down from the top, and markers alongside very steep pathways.

[Jason: "I don't know if she'll be able to go through with the mission."]

Author's notes: Okay, again I apologize for the lame chapter. I added some parts in that isn't shown on the "regular" show, and now it's back to the regular shows again.  
And if you're wondering--yes, I'm into the whole Taylor/Mike thing. I'm a Cole/Alyssa shipper, what can I say ;) To find someone else for Taylor is what we shippers are looking for--I'm sure you've seen Taylor/Alex, and that's an interesting pairing, but I think I like Taylor/Mike better. Oh well. We all have our own opinions.  
Wanna suggest a mission? Please e-mail me at stargazer_1017@lycos.com  
Episodes should come on time now. Hopefully. I'm getting back into fanfic mode =)


	7. Episode 6: Conquering Heights

Disclaimer: I already said that. No, really!

Author's Notes: I tried to update the story as often as I could. . .so if you're reading this, God Bless You ;) Don't worry, I'm not abandoning the story. I'm just working on other projects at the moment. Just remember to leave reviews--it'll help let me know how I'm doing. The only thing I won't change is the pairings. I like the pairings the way they are.   
Like I promised, here are the standings so far. Some pairs are tied, and I chose the pair with the higher factor to be the one on the top. For example, it's currently tied between Cole and Alyssa, and Rocky and Karone. Why go with Cole and Alyssa? Because they placed third in the last challenge--so they get to be third place, above Rocky and Karone.

Group 1

Tommy and Kim
33

Carter and Jen
31

Leo and Dana
22

Jason and Trini
21

Lucas and Nadira
21

Damon and Katie
13

Joel and Angela
11

Danny and Kendall
6

*Zack and Maya (2)

*Carlos and Aisha (1)

Group 2

Mike and Taylor
36

Wes and Kendrix
31

Cole and Alyssa
25

Rocky and Karone
25

Adam and Cassie
24

Andros and Ashley
18

Max and Kat
12

*Trip and Tanya (2)

*Chad and Kelsey (1)

I've decided not to post rooming assignments. It takes up a lot of room, and isn't really necessary. If you're interested in who's rooming with whom, just e-mail me and I'll give you the list.   
There'll be some swear words in this chapter, but it's lines from a movie, damnit! I hope you'll like that little tidbit I put in.  
More author's notes on the bottom. Okay, read on.

Power Rangers Extreme Challenge  
Episode six: Conquering Heights  
By: stargazer_1017

"Hey, look over there! Isn't that awesome?" Kendall pointed out the Aloha Tower to Katie and Karone as they walked down Waikiki. "Should we go up there?" Kendall asked the other two girls.

Katie turned to Karone, who shrugged with a smile. "Sounds good to me," Katie said, turning back to Kendall.

[Katie: "Kendall, Karone, and I went shopping in Waikiki today."]

"What about our bags? I really don't want to carry it up with me," Karone said, scrunching up her face slightly. "It seems like a long way up."

Katie turned to the camera. "Hey, why don't you carry the bags?" she asked, obviously talking to the person behind the camera. Karone suddenly came into view. "Yeah, can you do that for us? It'd be a big favor," she asked. She frowned when a muffled reply came from the person behind the camera. "Why not?" she asked.

"Why don't you stay here? We'll take the camera and take those shots for you," Kendall said, also coming into view. The other two girls nodded enthusiastically.

[Karone: "We ended up winning. Luckily the camera man was just a rookie and was scared."]

"Wow, this camera's awesome!" Kendall grinned as she swung the camera around. The girls were now at the top of the tower, overlooking the waters below. She focused on Karone. "Smile, Karone!" she said.

Karone grinned at the camera, and then turned around, as if modeling. "All right, go girl!" Kendall cheered her friend on. Then she swung the camera to Katie, who was looking into the distance. "Wanna pose for the camera too, Katie?" Kendall asked.

Katie didn't answer. She kept her focus ahead of her, her face pensive. "Katie?" Kendall tried again. She lowered the camera down slightly, and turned to Karone, who shrugged. Karone walked forward and put her hand on Katie's shoulder, startling her slightly. "Hey, are you all right?" Karone asked quietly. 

Katie nodded. "I'm okay," she replied, although she sounded anything but okay. 

[Katie: "It's about the third time in a row that Jen's blew me off when I asked her to hang out with me."]

***

Dana walked into the villa she shared with the other group 1 members and raised her eyebrows at the sounds she was hearing. She walked into the small living room and walked up to Kendrix, who was watching the tv. Then Dana looked on the large tv screen and saw Leo, Damon, and Joel playing a video game. "A Playstation?" Dana asked.

Kendrix shrugged as Leo turned around, grinning. "Yeah! Man, this is so cool!" he said, excited as a little boy. Damon also turned around. "If we had time to stay on Earth when we came the last time, we should've played these games. I mean, wow! Graphics!" he said, jumping up and down on his seat.

Dana turned to Kendrix, who was smiling and rolling her eyes at the same time. Kendrix playfully slapped Joel on the arm. "Were you the one who set them up to this, Joel?" she demanded.

Joel shrugged. "I only bought this yesterday, and these two little kids wanted to know what it was all about, so we took it out and set it up." Dana rolled her eyes at the comment. Then she turned around and saw Alyssa, Taylor, and Mike sitting down around a little table. She walked up to them. "Hey guys, mind if I join you?" she asked.

Alyssa gave a smile. "Not at all," she replied. Dana smiled and took a seat. "So, what's up?" she asked.

Taylor shrugged. "Nothing much. Just waiting for the next mission."

[Taylor: "It's been about three days since the last mission. A lot of us are just waiting around for when our communicators or morphers will ring with the news of a mission coming up, or just hanging out."]

"I know," Dana replied, shaking her head. "It's felt like forever since that rescue mission, huh?"

[Dana: "Leo and I were lucky enough to make it into third place and pulled ourselves up the ranks. I don't know if we'll have that chance again."]

Mike shrugged. "I'm not worried about the mission." He turned to Taylor. "We can get through anything together," he said confidently. Taylor smiled at him and put her hand on his hand, which was laying on the table. Then she jumped when Leo howled loudly.

The four at the table turned to look at the gamers, who were jumping up and down. "We won, we won!" Leo was yelling, giving his friends a high-five. Kendrix turned around to look at the four at the table. She laughed. "They won!" she said, shrugging. Dana, Alyssa, Taylor, and Mike laughed. The the phone in the house rang and Kendrix went off to answer it. Taylor rolled her eyes and turned back to Mike. "Is your brother always this enthusiastic?" she asked Mike.

Mike nodded. "Always. Why did you think I wanted to kill him a couple of times now?" he asked. Taylor laughed at the joke.

Just then, Kendrix came up to the four. "Hey Alyssa, there's a phone call for you," she said. Alyssa frowned slightly as she got up to go to the phone.

[Alyssa: "I didn't know what to expect. I don't know why anyone would try to get in contact with me here."]

"Hello?" Alyssa asked, answering the phone. Her face took on a look of confusion and surprise as she had a conversation with the other person on the other line. 

Taylor watched from her seat. She turned briefly to look at Mike, and then when she saw Alyssa's expression change to horror and shock, she got up quickly and walked over to her. "Alyssa, what's going on?" she asked quietly, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder.

Alyssa put down the phone slowly and turned to Taylor. "My father--he's been in an accident," she whispered. 

Taylor frowned. "An accident. Will he be all right? I mean, how serious is it?" 

Alyssa shook her head. "That was my aunt, on the phone just now. She said that maybe I should come home."

[Alyssa: "I don't know what to do."]

***

Leo was rewinding a tape on the VCR with a tape recorder in hand when Kim walked into the living room. "Hey Leo, what movie are ya watching?" she asked, curious. Leo stopped the tape and smiled. "We're going to play a joke on someone."

"We?"

Leo nodded. "If we get in trouble, it's all Rocky's idea," he said, playing the tape. Kim watched the screen and saw a part of the movie from "A Few Good Men."

[Kim: "I don't know what the heck's going on here."]

"And what are you guys going to do?" Kim asked. She moved closer to the couch. 

Just then, Rocky and Karone walked into the room, Rocky grinning ear to ear. "What the heck are you guys going to do?" Kim demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

"We're going to play a little joke on Mike," Rocky replied, still grinning.

"With 'A Few Good Men'?"

Rocky nodded enthusiastically. "Hey, it was all Leo's idea."

Leo turned around suddenly. "No way, it was your idea, Rocky."

"But you were the one who suggested Mike as the butt of the joke!"

Kim shook her head. "I'm not going to be a part of this," she said, putting her hands and turning to walk away. Rocky ran up to her and stopped her from going anywhere. "Come on, Kim. You'll like this, I promise. It'll be fun!" he exclaimed. Kim raised an eyebrow and then turned to Karone. "You're taking part in this too?" she asked.

Karone shrugged. "It sounds fun. I mean, I've never seen a practical joke being played on Mike before." Kim sighed. "And how are you going to do this? What are you guys doing exactly?"

Leo held up the tape recorder and grinned. "We're going to play this over the phone. It'll be like Mike having a conversation with the characters from the movie."

"And who's idea was this again. .. "

"Actually, it was Joel's idea to have something like this. He said he saw it on a tv show once," Rocky said, shrugging. 

[Leo: "And now for the practical joke on my big bro."]

"Hello?" came Mike's voice over the speakerphone. Rocky was already trying to hold a laugh inside and Leo was smiling as he pressed the button on the tape recorder.

"This is Colonel Nathan Jessep at Guantanamo base, Cuba," came the voice over the recorder.

"Yes, sir," Mike replied. Leo stiffled a laugh.

[Leo: "I could tell that Mike had already gone to attention."]  
[Karone: Laughing. "At ease, soldier. At ease!"]

"Who the fuck is PFC William T. Santiago?"

"Sir?" Mike asked questiongly. Leo played the tape again. "He's that bad, huh?" came the voice again on the recorder.

"He's bad at what, Colonel? Sir, I don't understand what you're saying."

"This is Colonel Nathan Jessep at Guantanamo base, Cuba."

"Yes, sir, I know that already! What do you want Colonel?" Mike was starting to sound agitated. The others heard Taylor's voice in the distance. "Who is that, Mike?" her voice said. "I don't know! It's some colonel from Cuba, or something!" he said, trying not to sound frantic.

Kim covered her mouth to stop her giggle from escaping. She put her other hand on Karone's shoulder and Karone turned to her, also trying to stiffle her giggle.

"Wait, I've got a better idea."

Mike sighed on the other end. "What is it, sir," he asked. His voice was starting to get agitated. Rocky closed his eyes and clamped his mouth shut. He stamped his foot a couple of times on the floor.

"Tom! Get me the President on the phone. We're surrendering our position in Cuba."

"Huh? What the--"

"Don't ever question my orders in front of another officer."

Mike sighed. "Sir, I'm not--"

"I don't give a shit."

". . .Okay. . ."

"You have to ask me nicely. "

"Yes, sir. What's--"

"You want answers?"

Kim listed closely and heard Mike mutter a "Finally" under his breath. Then he said, "Yes, sir, that's all I want."

"**_You want answers?!_**"

"**Yes sir!**"

"**You want the truth? ****_You can't handle the truth_****!**"

"Aaaahhh!" Rocky burst out laughing at the point, followed by Leo, Karone, and Kim. Leo was laughing so hard, he was pounding his fist on the counter. 

"What the hell. . .LEO!" Mike's voice roared on the phone. That made Kim, Karone, and Rocky laugh even louder. "Taylor, are you laughing at me?" 

Kim leaned in closer to the phone and listened. She laughed and said, "Hey, even Taylor's laughing!" 

"I'm going to kill you, Leo," Mike's voice growled on the other line. All of sudden, the line went dead. Everyone stopped laughing and each looked frantically at each other. "Run for your lives!" Leo yelled, and all four scrambled away.

***

"So. . .what are you going to do?" Cole asked gently. He and Alyssa were standing outside Group Two's villa, discussing their situation.

Alyssa shook her head. "I don't know."

[Alyssa: "One of the reasons I wanted to stay is Cole. I. . .really want to help him win this. We have come so far, and to let Cole down would be such a disappointment--for me and for him."]

Cole watched Alyssa for a moment and then said, "If it's about me, you don't have to stay for that reason. Your father needs you," he said gently. Alyssa turned to him and he gave her a smile of reassurance.

[Cole: "I think Alyssa's staying because maybe she doesn't want to disappoint me, or she thinks she'll be doing so if she leaves."]

"But what about the competition? If I leave and there's a mission, we'll be disqualified. And we've gotten so far already. . ." Alyssa started but Cole put his hand up. "Alyssa, the competition doesn't really matter to me. I just like being here with you," he said.

"Really?" Alyssa asked as she raised her eyebrows in surprise. 

Cole nodded. "Really. Getting to know you has been one of the best things of this trip."

[Alyssa: "Whoa. . .is he saying. . .what I think he's saying?" She pauses for a moment and then shakes her head. "Nah, he just looks at me as a friend. He couldn't possibly _return_ the feelings. . .could he?"]

Alyssa watched Cole for a moment and smiled at him. "Thanks Cole. You don't know how much that meant to me," she said quietly. Cole smiled back at her gave her a reassuring glance. "We'll figure out a way. We'll get through this," he said, determinely.

***

"Finally," Carter muttered. He had his left hand up and Dana was right next to him, listening in. 

"Yeah, word just came in," Joel said over the morpher. "It'll be at Five o'clock in the afternoon today. They said 'I hope you're not afraid of heights'."

[Carter: "After four days of not having a mission, we've finally received word of one."]  
[Dana: "Heights? It sounds like we'll be going to the mountains. . .or jumping out of a plane? I don't know. . .nothing's certain here."]

"What do you think the mission is," Dana asked Carter after they broke off contact with Joel. Carter shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "Are you worried?"

Dana shook her head. "Nah, I think Leo and I can handle it."

[Carter: "I wish that I was partnered up with Dana. Out of all the people here, she's the person I'm closest to. I mean, Jen's a great partner and she can keep her focus on the mission when we're going through it, but in a way, she's like a stranger."]

Carter smiled. "Come on, let's head to the dining hall for lunch," he said. 

***

"Heights?" Trini asked uncertainly as she took a sip of water. They were seated at a table, having lunch. "What do you suppose that means?"

[Trini: "I have a fear of heights. If it's not something that's really high, then I'll probably be able to pass the mission, but if not. . ."]

Kim and Jason exchanged a look. "I'm sure it's not nothing that drastic," Kim said, trying to comfort her friend. 

[Kim: "This may be a problem for Trini and Jason."]

Trini was shaking her head. "I don't know. . .I don't think they'd call it extreme challenge for nothing," she said, looking up at her two friends. Jason reached over and put his hand on Trini's shoulder and tried to comfort her. Kim gave her a friend a sympathetic glance. Just then, Tommy came over and put his hand on Kim's shoulder. "Hey Kim, can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked.

Kim looked up at him and nodded. "Excuse me," she said to Jason and Trini who nodded at her. They watched as Tommy and Kim stood a few feet away and Tommy said something quietly to Kim. Kim nodded a couple of times to what he was saying and after a minute, she came back to the table. "I'll see you guys later, all right?" she said.

Trini looked confused. "Where are you going?" 

"I'll be gone for awhile," Kim said. 

"But you're going to be back in time for the mission, aren't you?" Jason asked. Kim nodded at him. "Wouldn't miss it," she replied, revealing nothing else. Then she walked up to Tommy and they went out of the dining hall.

Unknowingly to them, Kat was watching a couple of feet away. She was seated at a table with Angela, Karone, Dana, and Carter, who were busy talking to each other. Kat gave an agitated sigh and started crumpling the napkin in front of her. Karone noticed this and turned away from the conversation she was having with Carter and Dana. "Kat, you okay?" she asked.

[Karone: "Kat seems a bit agitated lately. Everytime we see Kim, she scowls at her. It's kinda unnerving to see."]

Kat suddenly got up from the table and muttered, "I can't take this." Angela and Dana frowned as they watched her walk away. "What's going on?" Angela asked. Dana shook her head, not responding.

[Kat: "This has been a second day in a row that Tommy has not told me where he and Kim have been going."]

***

"Oh my gosh," Ashley said, gazing upwards. "It's a mountain!"

[Andros: "We arrive there, and we find ourselves facing a tall mountain. Not as high as I've heard Mount Everest is, but I have a feeling it'll feel that tall."]

T.J. jumped out of another van and he and Kai walked in front of the crowd of rangers who had gathered at the foot of the mountain. "Welcome all," he greeted them with a smile. "Can you guess what your next mission is?"

Trini looked up the mountainside, where there were two ropes hanging down from the top, and markers alongside very steep pathways.

"Your next mission is a climb up the mountain," T.J. continued. Jason turned to Trini and saw her slightly horrified expression as she stared at the mountain. 

"Each team will climb the mountain and reach as many markers along the side. This is a timed event," Kai said. "The competition will last for two minutes at each interval. It will be a group 1 member against a group 2 member, and then their partners will go and do the same thing--we'll tally up the number of markers each member touches and the end count will stand for each pairing."

"We'll start with the men from each pairing, and then go to the ladies," T.J. said. "You have five minutes to confer with your partner about your plan, if any, although I don't see how you can plan a strategy with this."

[Joel: "You can either climb the mountain or not."]

Jason pulled Trini aside after the hosts finished talking with the group. "You okay, Trini?" he asked. Trini shut her eyes tightly. "Jase, I don't know if I can do this," she said quietly. Jason pulled Trini in a hug and tried to comfort her.

[Jason: "I don't know if she'll be able to go through with the mission."]

"It's okay, Trini," Jason said and pulled away. "You still want to go through with this? I mean, do you want to try the mission out?"

[Trini: "I wanted to say yes. . .I wanted to do this for Jason because we were falling down the scoreboard fast, and if I didn't do this, we would definitely have a good chance of going home."]

Trini looked up the mountain again, and then back at Jason. She bit her lip and then slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry, Jason, I can't do this." Jason nodded with understanding. "It's okay, Trini. I'll just go do my part, and you stay put," he said.

[Trini: "If it was saving someone, maybe I'd be able to do it, if someone's life was in danger. But this is just a game--it's for _money_."]

"Jason, I feel really bad about this," Trini said, her expression reflecting her emotions. Jason just shook his head. "Hey, it's okay, don't worry about it. I totally understand," he told her. He smiled. "Okay? Don't worry."

[Kat: "I had so much energy in me today."]

"You okay, Kat?" Angela said, coming up to Kat. Kat, who was looking up the mountainside, turned to look at Angela. "I'm fine," she said. 

Angela looked concerned. "It's just that when we were eating lunch, you seemed kinda. . .upset."

Kat smiled at her friend. She reached over and gave her a hug. "Thanks, Angela, for being so concerned about me. I'm fine, really." She looked up at the mountain again. "And I'm focused and ready to do this mission."

"All right everybody, gather around," Kai suddenly called out. All the rangers gathered around him in a semi-circle, eagerly anticipating details. "We'll start of with Taylor from Group 2 and Katie from Group 1."

[Cassie: "Finally, they're putting them first."]

"Good luck, flygirl," Mike told Taylor as he, Taylor, Katie, and Damon were being strapped into some safety gear. Taylor nodded and gave him a hug. "You too, solider boy," she said as she stepped up to the foot of the mountain along with Katie. Katie reached across and shook her hand. 

"On your marks. . .get set. . .go!"

With that, they started climbing up the mountain. The others watched as the two women hit the first marker at the same time and climbed slowly up to the next one.

[Damon: "Finally. A challenge that Katie can use her strength in!"]

Taylor was climbing up the mountain slowly, but Katie obviously was having an easier time getting up. Before Taylor could hit the third marker, Katie was already heading for the sixth. After a couple of seconds later, the whistle blew. Both women glided to the ground. "All right, ladies good job! Katie has gotten six markers while Taylor got three," T.J. announced. "Come on men get ready!" Soon Mike and Damon were climbing up the mountain.

[Mike: "Climbing the mountain reminded me of when I fell into the crevice at Miranoi."]

"Come on Mike, go for it!" Taylor was yelling from the ground. "You can do it!"

[Mike: "Maybe it's like my second chance at making up for that."]

The whistle blew and T.J. announced, "Good job, guys. All right, in all Taylor and Mike got seven markers. Damon and Katie got eight markers." The crowd applauded. "All right, the next group is Andros and Ashley from Group 2, and Jason from Group 1."

"Since Trini has announced she will not partcipate in this mission, we'll let the men go first," Kai said.

"Hey! That means everyone's going to have their attention on me!" Ashley said. Everyone laughed at her comment. 

Trini walked up to Jason as he was being suited up. "Good luck up there, Jase," she said, giving him a hug. Jason hugged her back. "Thanks, Trini."

"Ready, set, go!" With that, Jason and Andros climbed onto the mountainside quickly. Jason was having more progress than Andros and was at four markers when Andros was at the third."

[Trini: "I saw Jason going up the mountain. . .and I couldn't let him go on this alone."]

Trini went up to T.J. and Kai, who were watching the progress of the men. "Guys, I changed my mind. I'd like to give this a try," she said. T.J. had turned to her briefly with surprise all over his face and then he looked back up to take count. Kai grinned at her. "Sounds good to me," he said. Trini smiled with relief.

The whistle blew again and Jason and Andros sailed down to the ground. Trini ran up to her partner. "Jase, I'm going up."

Jason also had surprise written all over his face. "Are you sure, Trini. You don't have to if you--" Trini shook her head, stopping him from continuing. "I want to," she said firmly. Jason smiled at her and nodded. 

[Trini: "I was fearing how it would go, but the least I could do was try it out. I couldn't let Jason down."]

"Good luck up there," Ashley told Trini as they were waiting for the whistle to be blown. "I'd hate to be going up there alone." Trini smiled back. "Glad to be here," she replied.

"Go!" 

Both women climbed up, slowly up the mountain. The other rangers were cheering the two from the bottom. After the whistle was blown, both came down to the ground. "Andros and Ashley got six markers, while Jason and Trini got five," Kai announced and the crowd cheered for them loudly.

"Great job, Trini. I knew you could do it," Kim said, coming over to give her friend a hug. Trini grinned.

[Trini: "I got only up to two markers, but I tried my best. It was better than nothing."]

"Next we have Tommy and Kim from Group 1 and Max and Kat from Group 2!"

[Angela: "Uh oh."]  
[Kim: "This is the first time I've actually gone up against Kat in any competition. I didn't know how she was going to react."]

"Good luck, Kat," Kim said, smiling at her as they waited on the bottom. Kat turned to her briefly and turned her attention back up the mountain. "You too," she replied softly. 

When the whistle blew, both started their climb up the mountain--but Kat was gaining edge, and fast.

[Kat: "I had to show everyone, including myself, that I had the right to be here, be in the competition. I climbed up that mountain as fast as I could."]

Max was pumping his fist up and down on the ground. "All right, Kat! Give um all you got!" he cheered. Kim looked up and saw Kat about almost four markers past her--and she was one the third! Kim gritted her teeth and tried to climb up even faster. Just as Kat reached the seventh marker, the whistle blew. Kat leaned her head back and gave a sigh of relief. The she and Kim floated to the ground. 

She was greeted with an enthusiastic Max at the bottom. "All right!" he said, giving her a huge hug. Kat was grinning ear to ear.

[Max: "That climb gave us a second chance to stay in this competition."]

Tommy gave Kim a hug also. "Good job, Kim," he said to his partner. Kim smiled, but her smiled seemed a bit forced. "I tried the best I could--" she started but Tommy cut her off. "Don't worry, we'll get this, all right? Don't worry about it," he assured her.

The whistle blew again and Tommy and Max were on the mountain now. Tommy and Max were neck and neck as they climbed and they both finished at the fifth marker. 

Next, was Dana and Karone. Dana slipped at the third marker, and ended up on the ground. The whistle blew before she could climb back up to the second marker.

Leo and Rocky were talking on the way up on their climb. "How ya doing, Rocky?" Leo grunted, as they both reached the third marker. 

Rocky turned to Leo briefly and grinned. "Fine," he grunted back to him. "You?"

"I'm good. Bet you can't make it to the top."

"I bet you can't either."

Kai rolled his eyes as he looked up. "Hey, less talking and more climbing!" he yelled up at them. "We are!" Leo and Rocky both responded back. Everyone on the ground laughed. 

Kendrix and Wes went up next against Lucas and Nadira. Nadira kept grumbling about how the rocks were hurting her nails on her way up--and only got up to the second marker. 

Wes was grinning at Lucas as they went up. "Looks like Nadira's nails got in the way," he joked to his friend as they climbed up. "Shut up," was Lucas' short reply as he climbed.

"Everyone's choosing really weird times to talk to each other," Carter remarked after he, Jen, Cole, and Alyssa got their gear on. He turned to Cole. "Are we going to be doing that too?" Soon both of them were climbing up the mountain--and both were talking. It appeared to be more of a disadvantage for Carter as he was lagging behind Cole.

[Cassie: "We've got to place high on this. We need the points."]

Cassie was matched up against Kendall as they went up and she quickly beat the woman by two markers. Danny paused at the bottom of the mountain, looking up. Adam frowned at him. "You okay?" he asked.

"I have a fear of heights too," Danny replied. "I don't know if I can handle this." Kendall listened in, standing not too far from them. She watched Danny look up at the mountain uncertainly and felt the urge to say something to him. Then a hand was on her shoulder. She turned and saw Cassie. "Cassie--"

"Help him, Kendall. I think he needs you," Cassie said softly. 

[Kendall: "It was surprising to see Cassie do this for me. I mean, I heard about the fight she had with Alyssa, and I guess I expected something different from her. Looks like I was wrong."]

Kendall smiled at Cassie. "Thanks Cassie," she said, nodding. Cassie smiled back at her and nodded back. Kendall turned around and walked up to Danny. "Danny, are you all right?" she asked him softly.

Danny spun around, surprised to hear her voice. "Kendall--"

Kendall looked up at the mountain. "Have faith in yourself, Danny," she told him. "We can get through this together." She gave him a pat on the shoulder and smiled. Danny smiled back and nodded. "I'll do my best," he said. 

"That's all I ask," Kendall replied. She squeezed his shoulder and then walked away so that they could start their climb.

[Danny: "I was glad that Kendall came to encourage me. I think that's what helped me get through the mission."]

Right after they got down, Joel and Angela were suited up. "Since Group 1 has an extra pair," Kai announced, "we'll have Joel and Angela go against each other to get their own points."

[Dana: "The married couple."]  
[Karone: "They were so funny during the mission."]

"I bet I can beat you," Joel was yelling at Angela as they scaled the mountain. Angela growled at him. "Joel! We're supposed to be helping each other up! These are our points!"

"You mean this isn't motivating you?"

"No!"

Joel's face changed to a softer expression. "I'm sorry," he apologized. Then he held his hand out. Joel was clearly two markers away from Angela. "Then I'll wait for you till you get here," he said, his expression serious. Angela looked up at him and had to smile at the gesture. When the whistle blew and they were on the ground, the crowd choroused, "Aww. . ." Joel just waved his hand and rolled his eyes as he reached for Angela's hand.

[Angela: "This is why I married this man."]

"All right ladies and gentlemen, good job," Kai said. "We've got the results in. T.J.?"

"The most markers came from Group 2's pairing, Max and Kat!" T.J. announced. Max and Kat grinned at the crowd and gave each other a high-five. "Courtesy of Hilo Hattie, Hawaii, they have given you a check for a five-hundred dollar shopping spree in their store, as well as a paid trip to a neighbor island!" T.J. said, handing them their checks.

[Max: "This is awesome."]  
[Kat: "A neighbor island? Hmm. . ."]

"Now, the new scoreboard will be shown after dinnertime, at which time the top three teams will again confer with each other and choose who to vote off," Kai said. "Good luck to all teams."

***

"It's great that your father regained consciousness," Cole remarked as he and Alyssa headed for the dining hall for dinner. 

[Alyssa: "My father regained consciousness just this morning, but I'm still going to visit him. I'll be gone about a day and a half, and hopefully a mission won't come up then."]

"You'll call and let us know how he's doing, won't you?" Cole asked. Alyssa nodded and then leaned forward to give him a hug. Cole was surprised by the hug and when they pulled apart, he asked, "What was that for?" Alyssa smiled at him. "For being understanding. That's one of the things I love about you." Cole slowly smiled at her and put his arm around her shoulder as they headed for the line. 

After dinner, Kai pulled down the blanket covering the scoreboard. 

[Adam: "The scoreboard never stays the same. It shifted again greatly."]

"All right, as you can see, the top three groups in Group 1 are Tommy and Kim, Leo and Dana, and Carter and Jen," Kai announced. T.J. nodded and pointed to Group 2. "Group 2's top teams are Mike and Taylor, Wes and Kendrix, and Rocky and Karone."

[Cassie: "Cole and Alyssa were knocked out of the third spot again and Adam and I aren't so far behind. Maybe we'll catch up."]

***

"That didn't take too long," Kendall remarked as the top three pairs from each group went back to their original seats. Kai and T.J. called up group 1's top three and Jen spoke this time. "We've decided to go with Danny and Kendall," she announced. "I'm sorry guys. You did a great job, but we've decided to put you guys down as the pair to go."

[Danny: "I'm glad I participated in the challenge. In a way, it helped me make up with Kendall."]  
[Kendall: "I don't think I've ever met people like the ones I've met here. I love them all."]

Kendall nodded from her spot and turned to Danny, who was sitting next to her. She reached for his hand on the table and gave it a squeeze.

Group 2 went onto the stage next and Karone announced, "We've decided to go with Andros and Ashley. This isn't a personal decision, it's just a part of the game."

[Ashley: "I guess since we were on the bottom, we were the better choice to go with.]

Everyone got up and started saying their farewells and goodbyes. Cassie went over to Andros and Ashley and gave them both huge hugs. Max shook Danny's hand and said, "We'll meet back at Animarium."

[Ashley: "It's hard to let go of the people you meet here--it's hard to say goodbye."]

***

"So I can take the next flight out? Great. . ." Alyssa said into the phone. "Thanks so much." She hung up the phone and wrote some more things on her notepad. She was standing near the small kitchen area of the villa for Group 2 and looked up when she saw Cassie enter.

[Alyssa: "Of all people to get stuck with, she walked in."]

Alyssa looked back down as quickly as she looked up and wrote some more things on the notepad in front of her. Cassie looked at her as she walked past--and then stopped. She turned around and sighed and walked back to Alyssa. "Hey, how's your dad doing?" she asked. Alyssa was surprised by the question. "He's fine," she replied, not giving anymore information.

Cassie nodded. "Good," she replied and turned around, not saying another word.

[Alyssa: "When Cassie talked to me, I thought she was going to apologize. She didn't."]

Alyssa watched as Cassie walked away. 

[Alyssa: "Maybe one day we can talk about this like normal adults."]

***

"Did you hear about the nightmarchers?" Lucas asked, walking into the living room of Group 1's villa. He plopped down on the couch next to Katie, Max, and Nadira. 

"What are nightmarchers?" Max asked. 

"They're little creatures who walk the grounds of the Hawaiian Islands during the night," Lucas replied, holding up a book in his hand. "This book's got all the info."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Let me see that," she said, grabbing the book from him. Max looked slightly nervous as Katie skimmed through the material. "It says here that nightmarchers walk through designated lands in Hawaii, especially where there are lots of power."

"Power?" Nadira asked. "What kind of power?"

Katie shrugged. "It doesn't mention. . .hey, listen to this. It says no one has ever seen a nightmarcher and kept their sight. All people who have claimed to see them have all become blind." She whistled and looked up from the book. "Wow."

[Max: "I hate ghosts."]

"But. . .but they're not here, right?" Max asked, forcing a smile on his face. Everyone turned to him. Katie raised her eyebrow, a smile creeping on her face. She shrugged. "You never know. . ." she said, her voice trailing off.

********Next time on Power Rangers Extreme Challenge********

"Where are they going all the time?" Jason asked, watching as Kim and Tommy went off again right after lunch.

[Dana: "Everyday after lunch, Kim and Tommy go off somewhere we don't know about. He doesn't even tell Kat about it and it's obviously driving her nuts."]

"Where the hell are we going?" Joel demanded. All the rangers were being transported in a bus to an undisclosed location. The darkness of the night and no streetlights prevented the rangers from determining where they were headed to. Kai turned around, "We're headed to a haunted house," he said, smiling evilly.

[Max: "Haunted?"]

[Karone: "We've been divided up. Some of Group 1's members have been intermixed with Group 2's."]

"I'm your girlfriend!" Kat yelled. "You're supposed to be comforting me, not her!" she was telling Tommy as they stood in a completely dark room.

A tear ran down Nadira's face as she looked around. "I don't know if I can go through with this," she whispered into the camera that was attached to the gear she was holding. 

"Cassie?" Mike said into the radio. "Cassie, come in!" He shook his head and looked at the others. "She's not responding."

Author's notes: If you can't tell from the preview, the next episode will be like the MTV show Fear, another good MTV show. It'd be so cool to see how rangers react to the ghosts and unexplained events in Hawaii. They have a lot of good mythology here. . .  
I was thinking of making a site for the fanfic series, but I don't have the time to put one up, so it might be put up after I finish the series. 


	8. Episode 7: Everything To Fear

Disclaimer: The usual

Author's Notes: If you've read the preview for this episode from the last chapter, then you'll know this chapter is going to be like the MTV series, Fear. It'll be slightly different, of course, but the basic idea is there. This is the first part of this mission, so all scenes that were in the last preview might not appear in this part. Here's the scoreboard:

Group 1

Tommy and Kim
47

Leo and Dana
39

Carter and Jen
38

Jason and Trini
37

Damon and Katie
25

Lucas and Nadira
25

Joel and Angela
22

Eliminated

Danny and Kendall (3)

*Zack and Maya (2)

*Carlos and Aisha (1)

Group 2

Mike and Taylor
47

Wes and Kendrix
46

Rocky and Karone
41

Cole and Alyssa
38

Adam and Cassie
32

Max and Kat
30

Eliminated

Andros and Ashley (3)

*Trip and Tanya (2)

*Chad and Kelsey (1)

And I can't believe it's over. . .Real World/Road Rules battle of the seasons is over! Oh no. . .I'm so going to miss the show. Thank goodness Real World won. All right guys! Congrats! I hope that they have new teams coming up--I'd love to see if anyone from Chicago's Real World'll join the challenge.  
As for this series, it won't be over for awhile. Hopefully, though I'd love to know who you guys think'll win. Come on!  
The place where they're at is a fiction place. Keep that in mind =)

Power Rangers Extreme Challenge  
Episode seven: Everything to Fear  
By: stargazer_1017

"Brush," Jen muttered as she looked around the room she shared with Kim. She lifted up her blanket on the bed to check and threw off the pillow. "Augh!" she growled, rushing around. Kim got out of the bathroom and watched her roommate rush around the room. "Jen, what are you looking for?"

"My brush," Jen answered, still occupied in looking for her brush. She bent down to look under her bed, and then crawled over to look under Kim's. 

Kim rolled her eyes with a smile and walked back into the bathroom. "Here," she said, with her own brush in hand. Jen looked up and Kim tossed the brush to her. "It's mine. Don't worry, it's clean. I just cleaned it in the faucet," Kim explained.

Jen gave her roommate a grateful smile. "Thanks, Kim," she said, running the brush through her hair furiously. "What's the big rush this morning?" Kim asked, moving over to take a seat on a chair near the dresser they shared.

"Wes is taking me out to brunch this morning at a nearby hotel," Jen said with a smile. 

"That's really sweet of him," Kim remarked. "I hope he's paying."

Jen laughed. "He better. I come from the future--and I definitely didn't carry cash with me." She put the brush down and ran into the bathroom and closed the door. Kim watched her go with amusement and then turned to the door when someone knocked. "Coming," she called out. She opened the door to reveal a grinning Wes. "Hey Wes, good morning," Kim greeted him as she stepped aside to let him in.

"Hey, Kim," Wes greeted her back. He looked around the room. "Is Jen in?"

"She's getting ready in the bathroom," Kim replied, gesturing to the seat she was sitting on earlier. When Wes shook his head, Kim said, "So I heard you're taking Jen to a Sunday brunch."

Wes grinned. "Yeah, I am. Heard they got a good special not to far down the road at a nearby hotel."

Just then, Jen got out of the bathroom and smiled as Wes came over and gave her a kiss. Kim smiled. "Hey Wes, think you got room for another one?" she asked.

Jen looked at Kim with a surprised expression and Wes looked--mortified. "Wh--what?" he stuttered.

Kim grinned. "I'm just kidding! Geez. . ." she ushered the two to the door. "Now go on you two, before I change my mind. Go on!" 

Jen smiled at her friend. "I'll see you later, Kim," she said with a slight wave.

[Kim: "Wes and Jen kinda remind me of how my relationship with Tommy was before I left."]

"Make sure he's paying now!" Kim called as she stood outside the door watching the two walk off.

***

"I hope everything's all right," Cole said, rubbing his hands together as he sat in the passenger seat of the van. Lucas, the driver, turned to his right to give Cole a slightly encouraging look.

[Cole: "Alyssa left about almost two days ago to visit her father in the hospital."]

Cole looked around the terminal and then turned behind him to look past the sliding doors leading to the pick-up point outside. He saw Lucas watching him through the van's windows and then in a couple of moments, he was off. 

[Cole: "Before she left, Alyssa said that if a challenge were to come up and she was still away, that we should just forfeit our position. Luckily nothing came up yet."]

Cole sighed and was about to turn to look outside again when the grinning face of the one he was waiting for approached him. Cole's face broke out in a grin and he engulfed his friend in a huge hug. "Alyssa!" he said, looking at her as he pulled away slightly. 

"Hey Cole," Alyssa greeted him, putting her hand on his arm. "A challenge didn't come up?"

[Cole: "Always Alyssa--worried about others before herself."]

Cole shook his head and bent down and picked up her luggage. "Nah, don't worry about it," he said, shrugging. He and Alyssa headed towards the doors to the van, which had now returned to its place along the curb. "And your father? How is he?" 

Alyssa grinned. "He's fine," she replied, opening the van door and getting in. Cole put down the suitcase behind the seat Alyssa was sitting on and got in next to her. "He was really glad to see me there."

"I'm glad he's okay," Cole said as he shut the door. 

"Got everything?" Lucas asked, turning around. When Cole nodded, he turned back to face forward and drove off. "I hope you're in the mood for dancing, Alyssa," Lucas said, looking at her in the rearview mirror.

"Dancing?" Alyssa asked.

Cole shrugged. "Yeah, some of the guys were going out to a club just to hang out and I said we'd be there. I mean, if that's all right with you," he added hastilly.

"I'm fine," Alyssa grinned. 

***

"Don't drink anything," Lucas warned Cole and Alyssa as they walked into the club. 

[Lucas: "Illegalities. Can't have them getting drunk illegally now." He grins.]

Katie, who was walking with them, rolled her eyes. "Yes daddy," she said, shaking her head. Cole and Alyssa just smiled at her expression. Katie started dancing her way to the table Wes and Jen were seated at.

Jen grinned at the sight of them. "Looks like one of us is ready to hit the floor," she yelled over the music, gesturing towards Katie.

"What are you talking about? Isn't Wes up for it?"

"Are you kidding me?" Jen said, rolling her eyes. She turned to Wes. "Come on, Wes, tell 'um why you don't wanna get out there." Katie turned to her watch her friend's response. 

Wes gave a sheepish smile. "I can't really dance," he shrugged.

"I said it was easy," Jen said. "I'll be up there with you!" She then gestured around the room, where people are already dancing on the floor. "Besides, no one is watching us!"

Cole gave Wes a pat on the arm. "Come on Wes, I can't dance either," he said and turned to Alyssa. "Think you wanna show me?" 

Alyssa shook her head but had a smile on her face. "Come on," she said, grabbing his arm and leading them onto the floor. Cole turned back to look at Wes with an encouraging look. 

Wes groaned. "Fine," he said and put his hand out. Jen's eyes lit up as she put her hand in his. 

As they walked towards the dance floor, Lucas turned to Katie. "Where is everyone else?" he asked. 

Katie shrugged and looked around. She squinted her eyes slightly as she did a visual scan of the room. Then she pointed to their left. "I see Mike and Taylor over there," she said. Lucas nodded and they made their way towards the two who were watching the others dance. When they reached the table, Lucas asked, "Where's everyone else?"

Mike pointed out towards the dance floor. "Some are already on the floor," he said, and added, "I have no idea where everyone else is."

"Are you guys going to dance?" Katie asked. 

Taylor opened her mouth to answer but before she could give a response, Cassie bounded up to the group. "Hey Mike, wanna dance?" she asked

[Lucas: "Uh oh."]

Taylor narrowed her eyes slightly as Mike turned to her. Mike turned back to Cassie. "Uh, all right," he said, and got up.

[Taylor: "I couldn't believe he did that."]  
[Katie: "Whoa. . .Cassie asked Mike to dance and he actually said yes. He's gonna have to answer some stuff to Taylor."]

"I'm gonna try and find some people," Katie said, and turned to Lucas. "Wanna come along?" she asked him. Lucas shrugged and followed her, leaving Taylor to fume by herself.

Out on the dance floor, Alyssa laughed. "That looks. . .all right," she said, trying to encourage Cole. 

Cole grinned. "Really? I'm doing all right?" he asked hopefully as he moved side to side.

[Alyssa: "It was just so cute to teach Cole to dance. I guess he was doing okay for someone who hasn't danced before in his life."]

"Loosen up a bit, Cole," Alyssa advised. "Don't be so stiff. You know, move your arms a bit," she said, gesturing with her own arms.

"Like this?" Cole asked as he put his arms out and moved them slightly up and down. He looked at his arms' movement and then back at Alyssa, who was biting on her lip.

[Alyssa: "I tried."]

Before Alyssa could respond, she turned and saw Mike and Cassie dancing. She frowned. "Did something happen while I was gone?" she asked Cole.

"Huh?" Cole asked absently, looking down at his feet as he moved.

"There," Alyssa said, gesturing towards Mike and Cassie. "Did something happen between Mike and Taylor? I mean now he's dancing with Cassie."

Cole turned to look at what Alyssa was gesturing about. Then he turned back to Alyssa and shrugged. "Nothing's happened as far as I know," he replied, getting back to watching his feet. Alyssa frowned.

[Alyssa: "What is Cassie up to?"]

***

"Too much of a tourist spot," Jason said, shaking his head. "What about visiting the base?"

Dana raised her eyebrow. "What base? Pearl Harbor? How do we get in?" she asked as she took a bite out of the salad she was eating. "Besides, I kinda like the idea of playing tourist in Waikiki."

Kim smiled as she looked around the table. "I like the idea too," she said, agreeing with Dana. "How often are we gonna come around here? Might as well be a tourist while we can."

Trini turned to Jason. "Looks like you're a bit outnumbered here, Jase," she said. She looked up as Tommy approached the table. 

"Hey guys, hope I'm not interrupting," he said hurridly, looking around the table. 

Jason shook his head. "Not at all, bro. Just discussing what to do today, since I don't think a challenge is coming up."

"Yeah, it's been days, hasn't it?" Tommy remarked, a bit distracted. He turned to Kim. "Uh, ready to go?" he asked.

Kim smiled up at him and nodded. "I'll see you guys later, all right?" she told the group seated at the table. "Just let me know if you guys decided on a place to go touring."

"All right," Jason agreed and watched as Kim grabbed her bag from under the table and got up. He watched as they walked off towards the door, murmuring as they talked. "Where are they going all the time?" He asked, looking at Trini and Dana. Both shrugged.

"Hey guys, mind if I sit here?" Kat's Australian accent asked from behind Jason. 

He turned quickly to look at her. "Kat? Uh yeah, sure," he said, gesturing towards the open seat. 

Kat smiled as she took a seat. "All the other seats were occupied and I couldn't find Tommy anywhere," she said, scooting her seat inwards.

[Jason: "Whoa, Tommy didn't tell Kat where he was? Now that's_ really_ strange."]

"You mean Tommy didn't tell you where he went?" Trini asked. 

Kat shook her head. "No, he didn't ," she replied, her fork in her hand. She put it down and asked, "What do you mean? Did he tell you were he went?" Trini and Jason exchanged glances, but didn't answer. Kat turned to Dana, who was taking a sip at her water and looking into her glass. Kat turned back to Trini. "He was here?"

Trini looked hesitant. "Well, he was here for awhile--he came to pick up Kim," she replied.

Kat looked slightly confused and curious at the revelation. "Oh," she replied and picked up her fork again. 

[Dana: "Everyday after lunch, Kim and Tommy go off somewhere we don't know about. He doesn't even tell Kat about it and it's obviously driving her nuts."]

"I'm sure they're just, you know, shopping or something. You know Kim," Jason said.

Kat nodded and forced a smile onto her face. "Yeah, I'm sure it's all right," she replied, digging into her lasagna. Jason turned to Dana and shook his head.

***

[Taylor: "Cassie pulled a childish move last night with Mike."]

"Don't be upset," Mike whispered as he ran his hand through Taylor's blonde hair. They were laying down on Taylor's bed in Group 2's Villa. Mike was laying on his right side next to Taylor, who was on her back. His right hand was under her back and entwined with Taylor's right hand.

[Taylor: "And I feel so stupid for letting the bitch get to me this way." She sighs and shakes her head with a rueful smile on her face. "Sometimes I like Mike so much. . .I just. . ." She stops, and then shakes her head again.]

"Did you have to say yes? I mean, you could've just said no. I would have," Taylor replied quietly. 

"Cassie's a friend, Taylor, and it's gonna stay that way. When she asked me to dance, I didn't want to let her down. She's helped us out and I have no problems with her," Mike whispered. "It didn't mean anything."

"I know," Taylor whispered back.

[Mike: "Taylor and I have gotten way too close during the whole challenge, which isn't such a bad thing. I mean, there's a lot about Taylor that I like. There's a lot we have in common. To see her this upset hurts me."]

"So we're okay?" Mike whispered. Taylor nodded. 

Taylor's Growl Phone rang suddenly. Using her left hand, Taylor reached into the pocket of her jeans. "Hello?" she asked.

"Taylor? Where are you?" Kai asked on the other side.

"I'm in my room in Villa two," Taylor replied, sitting up slowly. She gave Mike a confused look as she and Mike sat up on the bed. "What's going on?"

"Tell whoever's in Villa two to get their rest now--the bus leaves at eleven thirty tonight," Kai replied.

"Bus? What are you talking about?" Taylor asked and then her eyes widened. "Wait a minute. Are we talking about a challenge?"

"You got it," Kai replied.

Taylor turned to Mike with wide eyes. "What is it?" Mike asked her.

"We've got a challenge tonight," Taylor replied. Mike's eyes widened as Taylor's did. "Where are we all going to meet?" Taylor asked into her Growl Phone.

"In front of the hotel is fine."

Taylor nodded and shut her phone. "What the heck kind of mission is at nightfall?" she asked as she got off the bed. Mike shrugged, following Taylor as she walked into the living room of the villa. Playing video games were Leo and Rocky, with Kendrix watching them. "Hey guys, we've got a mission tonight. We have to be in front of the hotel at eleven thirty to catch the bus."

Kendrix raised her eyebrows. "Are you serious? Tonight? But that's about four hours away!" she pointed out.

Taylor shrugged as Mike nodded. "That's what the game plan is, that's what we have to follow I guess," Mike said.

***

"And can you believe this? We actually have a mission tonight--in like, two and a half hours," Cassie said over the phone. She looked over to T.J. and Kai, who were watching tv.

"What kind of mission is at almost midnight?" Ashley asked over the other line. 

"I have no clue," Cassie replied, shaking her head. She moved around in her chair a bit. "Sounds really off though. Everything we've done lately has been physical, you know the running and stuff. I don't think we can do much at night unless they're bringing us to the gym and making us lift the most weights or something."

[Cassie: "Word just got out about the mission we're doing tonight. I'm totally up for it."]

Ashley laughed. "And what about everyone and everything else?" she asked.

Cassie paused before replying, "They're okay."

"Come on, Cassie, I'm your best friend. There's something going on, isn't there?"

Cassie sighed. "Just the usual."

There was a slight pause. Then, "All right, how's Taylor doing?" 

[Cassie: "Ash can read me like a book."]

"All right, I pulled a childish move when we went to the club last night," Cassie conceded. "I sorta. . .pulled Mike away from Taylor to make her jealous." 

"Cassie. . ."

Cassie sighed. "I know, I know, stop hassling with them."

Ashley also sighed over the phone. "Taylor's not so bad a person, Cassie. Try getting to know her. Besides, I know you can win the competition with your own wits--and even you know that."

"I'll try, all right? It's just, I see an opportunity to win, you know? But I know I really hurt Taylor last night."

***

"Where can we be going at this time?" Joel muttered as he and the others stood in front of the hotel. "I could be. . ."

"Playing video games?" Angela finished, grinning. She put her hand around Joel's arm when he glared at her. "Come on, Joel, doesn't this mission excite you? Don't you want to know what we're going to do?"

"No."

Angela rolled her eyes and turned to see Max hanging on Taylor's arm. Taylor growled and tried to pry Max off her arm. "Max, will you let go of me?" she said impatiently.

Max just glared at Taylor. "Gee, thanks Taylor for making me look stupid!" he growled at her. Taylor just shook her head and walked towards Mike. 

[Karone: "No one knows what this mission will be about. I'm kinda curious myself as to what we could be doing at nighttime."]

The bus slowed down as it made a turn and climbed higher. Joel frowned and turned to Angela, who was seated at his side. "Man, it's so dark out there! Look, there's no moonlight, and the city lights are almost gone!" Angela just shook her head. Joel turned forward. "Where the hell are we going?" He asked. "Kai? Come on, man, at least give us a clue!"

Kai, who was seated in the front, turned around. "You sure you want to know?" he asked.

"Yes!" nearly everyone choroused. 

"We're going to a haunted house," Kai replied, an evil smile on his face. He turned forward slowly, to face the driver. 

[Max: "Haunted? A haunted house?"]  
[Lucas: "A haunted house sounds different. We don't have too many of those in the city where I live in the future."]

"I don't think I like this mission," Nadira said, pouting. "I don't like ghosts."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Come on, Nadira, you've dealt with the baddies before. You knew those mutants!"

Nadira slapped Lucas on the arm. "They were nice mutants! They never jumped out of dark hallways to yell at me! They never floated around trying to scare me!" she pointed out, her eyes darting side to side. 

[Lucas: "I really hope Nadira can go through with this mission. We could be the next ones off if she doesn't."]

***

"Oh my God. . ." Kim whispered as she looked up at the building. "What is this?" she asked.

Kai and T.J. were standing in front of the group of rangers, grinning from ear to ear. "This is the community of Makualani," T.J. said, gesturing towards the area. "In the distance there, you can see the plantation where the residents worked at. The houses all around are plantation houses."

[Mike: "Ghost town."]

"So this place is abandoned?" Tommy asked. When T.J. and Kai nodded, he asked, "How come?"

T.J. turned to Kai and Kai explained, "Well, the plantation only survived for a year or so because of some. . .incidents."

Tommy frowned. "Incidents? What kind?"

Kai shrugged. "Can't tell you. You'll find out when you start you missions." He had a piece of paper in his hand and T.J. shone a flashlight on it. "You'll be divided into two groups--not necessarily the two groups you are in now," he informed the group. He looked up and said, "Group A will consist of Cassie, Angela, Jason, Wes, Jen, Lucas, Nadira, Katie, Rocky, Mike, Taylor, Alyssa, and Leo. Group B will consist of Adam, Kat, Tommy, Joel, Trini, Kendrix, Carter, Dana, Damon, Karone, Kim, Max, and Cole." 

T.J. pulled out two sheets of paper from his pocket and handed one to Carter, and the other to Jason. "These are the directions to both of your safehouses. When you reach your safehouses, get on the computer and follow its instructions. The computer will relay the rules for your missions. Good luck, guys."

[Carter: "I can't believe this. We're doing a kinda haunted house meets the Power Rangers mission."]  
[Cole: "I don't know if Max'll be able to handle this. At least he wasn't gripping my arm or anything."]

"Make up any stories or mention anything scary to me, Cole, and I'll kick your butt," Max warned as Group B walked towards their safehouse. Cole shrugged and didn't reply.

Carter was squinted at the paper as Kendrix held the flashlight above. "If the map is right, our safehouse is. . .there. . ." he pointed towards a small house about ten feet away. 

"Are you serious?" Kim demanded. 

[Kim: "I think they were expecting most of us to chicken out or something. The house was miniscular!"]

"Are they expecting us to wuss out from this mission? I mean, look at that place! I don't think it'll hold all thirteen of us!" Kim said, walking up to Carter and looking at the paper in his hands.

"That's what the map says," Carter pointed out, tilting the map towards her so she could get a better look. 

[Max: "First they want to kill us by sending us to some ghost town, and then they want to suffocate us in a room. Geez, I hope Group A has the better hideout."]

"We're climbing down there?" Rocky asked, his mouth hanging open. Group A was crowded around a small doorway leading underground. Rocky looked up at Jason. "It looks like something out of Wizard of Oz!"

Jason shrugged. "The instructions say it right here, to follow the pathway down to the underground basement."

[Taylor: "Hawaii didn't strike me as a place that had tornados. Why would people have an underground basement?"]

Nadira bit her lip. "I'm not going in there," she said, pouting and crossing her arms. Everyone turned to look at her. 

Lucas was the first to speak up. "Nadira," he started, but Nadira interrupted him.

"Lucas, you want me to go under there and do this mission to win this stupid competition. I don't find this competition any reason to stay here and get hell scared out of me! I'm quitting right now!"

Lucas sighed and turned to Kai, who had accompanied Group A. "Can she do that? I mean, how does it affect our standing?" he asked.

"She doesn't need to complete this mission for you two to get points," Kai explained. "Although if you and your partner last until the end of the mission, both of you receive your end points, which we add to your total. If you're the only one left from the partnership, then we'll add points only from your side."

[Nadira: "I thought Lucas just wanted to win the competition. He didn't care that I was scared to death to stay here. He surprised me."]

"Nadira," Lucas said, turning back to Nadira, "this is your choice. I mean, I would love for you to stay here and try and defeat your fears. I can't promise nothing bad'll happen here, but what you believe will happen _will_. You can try it out, and then if you don't think it's something you want to do, then you can quit."

Surprise shown on Nadira's face as she looked at Lucas. "Really? Do you mean that?" she asked softly. When Lucas nodded, Nadira slowly smiled. She looked around at the other rangers and saw encouraging looks from the others. Then she turned back to Lucas and nodded. "All right! I'll give it a try!"

Jason nodded and put his hand on the handle of the door. "Ready guys?" he asked. When everyone nodded, he pulled the doors open and lead the way into the dark basement. Taylor, who was holding the flashlight, followed right behind. They group walked down the wooden steps towards a lit room. 

"This is creepy," Taylor muttered as she shut off her flashlight. "I guess the crew came during the daytime and turned on everything."

[Taylor: "I don't think your crew is brave enough to come here during nightfall. That's how creepy I thought the place was."]

"So go to the computer first," Kai instructed. Jason did as he was told while everyone looked around the room. Mike was standing behind Jason as he moved the mouse around on the screen. 

After scanning the screen for a few moments, Jason looked up and gestured to everyone in the room to come towards the computer screen. "Guys, come here. We've all gotta listen," he called out. When everyone gathered around the computer, Jason clicked on the button that said, "Start."

"Welcome Rangers and friends to Makualani Plantations located on the Eastern coast of the island of Oahu," a recorded voice from the computer greeted the group. "When first opened, Makualani was a thriving community, with its residents all employees of the Plantation. About six months after the Plantation opened, a resident and empolyee named Pedro Ruiz was fired from the plantation for threatening other employees and for partaking in strange practicies."

[Rocky: "Sound like a sort of witchy deal going on."]

Rocky's eyes scanned the screen as the voice spoke. "Pedro Ruiz cursed the community and the plantation for their unfair judgement on the man, and ever since then the plantation has had--incidents. About a month after Ruiz was banned from the community, a little girl was found in the well in the center of the community, drowned."

"Oh my God. . ." Kat whispered, clamping her mouth with her hand.

"In the plantation, machines have been known to turn on without warning. About a week after Ruiz left, an employee was doing maintenance work on one of the machines and was crushed when it turned on suddenly, while he was in the middle." Several people grimaced at the description, but the voice didn't stop there. "Your mission will be to investigate several places of the community for any signs of paranormal activities. The places investigated will be the local hospital, the plantation, the community well, the sugar cane fields, and also several houses around the community."

[Max: "You mean we gotta actually go _inside _of the houses? Ick!"]

Max's eyes started darting side to side on the computer screen as he wrung his hands together several times. "Now," the voice spoke up again, "all will choose a number from the paper bag next to the computer screen to designate when each member will do a dare. Choose your numbers now. When completed, click on 'Members' and input the information."

"Aww man, I hope it's not by one, two, three, four. . ." Leo said, shaking his head. 

Mike, who had the paper bag, shrugged and held up the bag. "We'll see, little bro," Mike replied, as Leo pulled a number from the bag. 

Leo raised an eyebrow as he read the number. "I don't think it's in order. I've got number 145." 

Jason nodded and input the number into the computer. He waited patiently as the others took turns taking numbers out of the bags. When everyone was finished, Jason clicked on 'Rules', as he was instructed when finishing the task of inputing the members. 

"Now is the time to begin. There are two main sections to your basement safehouse. The first main part is where you are presently located, the main room. Here is where you will receive dares for the mission. The other main part is right behind you, which is the confessionals room. You may step into the room and record your own experiences and thoughts about the process you are going through." 

Katie turned around to see what the voice was pointing out--and quickly turned back to the group. "Geez, if that's the confessionals room, I'd rather stay here and wait until I get called. The place looks kinda creepy," she said, shivering slightly.

"You will all be issued gear which consists of a camcorder, microphone, and shoulder light, which will be worn at all times you step outside of the safehouse," the voice continued on. "If at any time you remove either items without being told, you will be disqualified from the competition. You are required to complete the dare given to you. If you chose not to complete the mission, you will return to the safehouse and be disqualified, and another team member will be chosen to complete the dare in your place. None of you, during the mission, will encounter a member from the other Group unless specified. This mission will be run on a duration of one day, and two nights."

"Whoa. . ." Wes breathed, shaking his head.

"The mission starts now. Click on 'Dare' and the first team member will be given the first dare. Good luck."

Everyone stayed still and quiet after the voice had stopped talking. Jason turned around in his chair and looked up at the faces around him. "Guys ready?" he asked, looking each of them in the eye. When everyone had given their consent, Jason turned back around in his chair and clicked on the 'Dare' button.

"First dare--member number 73, is up. Member number 15 will accompany number 73 to the Makualani community hospital and await further instructions. Member number 63 will navigate."

"Oh my God, that's me," Angela said, biting her lip. 

"Number 73?" Katie asked. When Angela nodded slowly, Katie replied, "I'm number 15, so I guess we'll walk there together."

"I'm number 63," Alyssa said. Jason got up from his seat and gestured for Alyssa to sit down. When she did, she picked up the walkie-talkie next to the keyboard. 

Angela took a deep breath as she and Katie put on the gear instructed. "I can't believe I'm doing this," Angela muttered.

[Angela: "Science has always taught me to be a skeptic in all this paranormal stuff, but it doesn't mean I don't fear what might be there and what might not."]

"Good luck, Angela," Jen said, giving Angela a quick hug. "We know you can do this." Angela nodded and turned to Katie. 

"Let's do it then," Angela said.

[Jen: (Sitting in the confessional with Wes) "I hate this confessional booth. Take me back to the hotel, please." She looks around the room and grimaces. "Gosh. . ."]  
[Wes: "Katie and Angela have just left for the first dare of the night and right now, none of us know what to expect."]  
[Jen: "I don't know too much about ghosts and everything. We didn't have stories of haunted houses in the year 3001, and I don't think there are still haunted houses there. I just hope we can handle it." (Wes reaches for Jen's hand). "I can't lose this when we've come so close."]

_To be continued. . ._

__

You like? I'm still working on part two, so hopefully that'll come out soon. Don't worry. Remember R&R!


End file.
